Multi-customer (multi-tenants) support with hypervisor based bond implementation

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for transparent high availability for multi-customer support with hypervisor based bond implementation. The method can include creating a network path bond between a plurality of compute instances and a plurality of Network Virtualization Devices (“NVD”), the network path bond comprising a plurality of network paths, identifying a monitoring bond coupling the plurality of NVDs to a monitoring agent, creating a number of monitoring VNICs, each of the number of monitoring VNICs residing in one of the plurality of NVDs, overlaying a unique IP address to each of the monitoring VNICs, determining with the monitoring agent a health of at least one of network paths, the network paths including an active network path and an inactive network path, and activating the inactive network path when the active network path fails.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.63/121,656, filed on Dec. 4, 2020, and entitled “L3 State ReplicationBetween SmartNICs On Failover and/or L3 State At RVRs And Pulled Down ToSmartNICs When Needed.”

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to network virtualization.

BACKGROUND

A compute instance or other resources hosted on a CSPI may beaccessible, and may access other computer instances or devices via an“Network virtualization device,” NVD such as a SmartNIC. The NVD maycontain a VNIC assigned to the compute instance. The VNIC forms avirtual port to the VCN for the compute instance. However, in the eventthat this NVD fails, or communication with the NVD is interrupted, theability of the compute instance to communicate with other computeinstances or devices on the VCN is impaired, and in some instances, canbe stopped. Further, it can be very difficult to quickly detect thefailure of this NVD and even more challenging to quickly failoverrouting and communications to another NVD. This can result ininterruptions in processing and/or result in the inability to accessresources and services contained in a VCN. Accordingly, furtherdevelopments are desired.

BRIEF SUMMARY

Some embodiments relate to a method that can include creating a networkpath bond between a plurality of compute instances and a plurality ofNetwork Virtualization Devices (“NVD”), each of the plurality of NVDsincluding a Virtualized Network Interface Card (“VNIC”) for each of thecompute instances. In some embodiments, each of the VNICs has an overlayIP address corresponding to an IP address of the compute instanceassociated with the VNIC. In some embodiments, the network path bondincludes a plurality of network paths, and in some embodiments, each ofthe plurality of network paths connects the each of the computeinstances to associated VNIC of one of the plurality of NVDs. The methodcan include identifying a monitoring bond coupling the plurality of NVDsto a monitoring agent, creating a number of monitoring VNICs, each ofthe number of monitoring VNICs residing in one of the plurality of NVDs,overlaying a unique IP address to each of the monitoring VNICs,determining with the monitoring agent a health of at least one ofnetwork paths, the network paths including an active network path and aninactive network path, and activating the inactive network path when theactive network path fails.

In some embodiments, the method includes identifying service tenancy. Insome embodiments, the service tenancy can be an administrative virtualcloud network. In some embodiments, the unique IP addresses are receivedfrom the service tenancy. In some embodiments, the unique IP addressesare determined by the monitoring agent.

In some embodiments, the method includes identifying one of the networkpaths as an active network path. In some embodiments, the methodincludes identifying at least one of the network paths as an inactivenetwork path. In some embodiments, at least one of the plurality ofcompute instances comprises a virtual machine. In some embodiments, theplurality of compute instances on located on a single physical server.In some embodiments, the plurality of compute instances share the activenetwork path.

In some embodiments, activating the inactive network path when theactive network path fails includes identifying all of the VNICsassociated with the NVD of the failed network path, and updating routingtables to associate the overlaid IP addresses of the VNICs of the failednetwork path with VNICs of the activated inactive network path. In someembodiments, the active network path fails when performance of theactive network path drops below a threshold level. In some embodiments,the threshold level identifies a minimum data transmission speed for theactive network path.

In some embodiments, at least some of the plurality of NVDs comprise aSmartNIC. In some embodiments, each of the VNICs comprises a MAClearning VNIC. In some embodiments, determining with the monitoringagent the health of at least one of network paths includes sending acommunication to the active network path via the monitoring bond,providing information from the monitoring bond to the monitoring agentbased on any response received to the communication, and determining thehealth of the at least one of the network paths with the monitoringagent based on the information provided by the monitoring bond.

Some embodiments relate to a non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium storing a plurality of instructions executable by one or moreprocessors. When executed by the one or more processors, the pluralityof instructions cause the one or more processors to create a networkpath bond comprising a plurality of network paths between a plurality ofcompute instances and a plurality of Network Virtualization Devices(“NVD”), identify a monitoring bond coupling the plurality of NVDs to amonitoring agent, create a number of monitoring VNICs, each of thenumber of monitoring VNICs residing in one of the plurality of NVDs,overlay a unique IP address to each of the monitoring VNICs, determinewith the monitoring agent a health of at least one of network paths, thenetwork paths including an active network path and an inactive networkpath, and activate the inactive network path when the active networkpath fails.

In some embodiments, each of the plurality of NVDs can include aVirtualized Network Interface Card (“VNIC”) for each of the computeinstances. In some embodiments, each of the VNICs can have an overlay IPaddress corresponding to an IP address of the compute instanceassociated with the VNIC. In some embodiments, each of the plurality ofnetwork paths connects the each of the compute instances to associatedVNIC of one of the plurality of NVDs. In some embodiments, the pluralityof compute instances share the active network path. In some embodiments,activating the inactive network path when the active network path failsincludes identifying all of the VNICs associated with the NVD of thefailed network path, and updating routing tables to associate theoverlaid IP addresses of the VNICs of the failed network path with VNICsof the activated inactive network path.

Some embodiments relate to a system that can include a plurality ofNetwork Virtualization Devices (“NVD”) and a processor. The processorcan create a network path bond between a plurality of compute instancesand a plurality of Network Virtualization Devices (“NVD”). In someembodiments, each of the plurality of NVDs can include a VirtualizedNetwork Interface Card (“VNIC”) for each of the compute instances. Insome embodiments, each of the VNICs can have an overlay IP addresscorresponding to an IP address of the compute instance associated withthe VNIC. In some embodiments, the network path bond can include aplurality of network paths, each of the plurality of network pathsconnecting the each of the compute instances to associated VNIC of oneof the plurality of NVDs. The processor can identify a monitoring bondcoupling the plurality of NVDs to a monitoring agent, create a number ofmonitoring VNICs, each of the number of monitoring VNICs residing in oneof the plurality of NVDs, overlay a unique IP address to each of themonitoring VNICs, determine with the monitoring agent a health of atleast one of network paths, the network paths including an activenetwork path and an inactive network path, and activate the inactivenetwork path when the active network path fails.

In some embodiments, the plurality of compute instances share the activenetwork path. In some embodiments, activating the inactive network pathwhen the active network path fails includes identifying all of the VNICsassociated with the NVD of the failed network path, and updating routingtables to associate the overlaid IP addresses of the VNICs of the failednetwork path with VNICs of the activated inactive network path.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a high level diagram of a distributed environment showing avirtual or overlay cloud network hosted by a cloud service providerinfrastructure according to certain embodiments.

FIG. 2 depicts a simplified architectural diagram of the physicalcomponents in the physical network within CSPI according to certainembodiments.

FIG. 3 shows an example arrangement within CSPI where a host machine isconnected to multiple network virtualization devices (NVDs) according tocertain embodiments.

FIG. 4 depicts connectivity between a host machine and an NVD forproviding I/O virtualization for supporting multitenancy according tocertain embodiments.

FIG. 5 depicts a simplified block diagram of a physical network providedby a CSPI according to certain embodiments.

FIG. 6 is a schematic illustration of one embodiment of a system fornetwork path bonding.

FIG. 7 is a depiction of another embodiment of a system for network pathbonding.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of a process forcreation of a network path bond.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of a process forcreating a monitoring bond and providing automatic failover.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of a process forhealth monitoring and automatic failover.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating one pattern for implementing acloud infrastructure as a service system, according to at least oneembodiment.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating another pattern for implementinga cloud infrastructure as a service system, according to at least oneembodiment.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating another pattern for implementinga cloud infrastructure as a service system, according to at least oneembodiment.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating another pattern for implementinga cloud infrastructure as a service system, according to at least oneembodiment.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating an example computer system,according to at least one embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, specificdetails are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding ofcertain embodiments. However, it will be apparent that variousembodiments may be practiced without these specific details. The figuresand description are not intended to be restrictive. The word “exemplary”is used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance, orillustration.” Any embodiment or design described herein as “exemplary”is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous overother embodiments or designs.

Example Virtual Networking Architecture

The term cloud service is generally used to refer to a service that ismade available by a cloud services provider (CSP) to users or customerson demand (e.g., via a subscription model) using systems andinfrastructure (cloud infrastructure) provided by the CSP. Typically,the servers and systems that make up the CSP's infrastructure areseparate from the customer's own on-premise servers and systems.Customers can thus avail themselves of cloud services provided by theCSP without having to purchase separate hardware and software resourcesfor the services. Cloud services are designed to provide a subscribingcustomer easy, scalable access to applications and computing resourceswithout the customer having to invest in procuring the infrastructurethat is used for providing the services.

There are several cloud service providers that offer various types ofcloud services. There are various different types or models of cloudservices including Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service(PaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), and others.

A customer can subscribe to one or more cloud services provided by aCSP. The customer can be any entity such as an individual, anorganization, an enterprise, and the like. When a customer subscribes toor registers for a service provided by a CSP, a tenancy or an account iscreated for that customer. The customer can then, via this account,access the subscribed-to one or more cloud resources associated with theaccount.

As noted above, infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is one particulartype of cloud computing service. In an IaaS model, the CSP providesinfrastructure (referred to as cloud services provider infrastructure orCSPI) that can be used by customers to build their own customizablenetworks and deploy customer resources. The customer's resources andnetworks are thus hosted in a distributed environment by infrastructureprovided by a CSP. This is different from traditional computing, wherethe customer's resources and networks are hosted by infrastructureprovided by the customer.

The CSPI may comprise interconnected high-performance compute resourcesincluding various host machines, memory resources, and network resourcesthat form a physical network, which is also referred to as a substratenetwork or an underlay network. The resources in CSPI may be spreadacross one or more data centers that may be geographically spread acrossone or more geographical regions. Virtualization software may beexecuted by these physical resources to provide a virtualizeddistributed environment. The virtualization creates an overlay network(also known as a software-based network, a software-defined network, ora virtual network) over the physical network. The CSPI physical networkprovides the underlying basis for creating one or more overlay orvirtual networks on top of the physical network. The physical network(or substrate network or underlay network) comprises physical networkdevices such as physical switches, routers, computers and host machines,and the like. An overlay network is a logical (or virtual) network thatruns on top of a physical substrate network. A given physical networkcan support one or multiple overlay networks. Overlay networks typicallyuse encapsulation techniques to differentiate between traffic belongingto different overlay networks. A virtual or overlay network is alsoreferred to as a virtual cloud network (VCN). The virtual networks areimplemented using software virtualization technologies (e.g.,hypervisors, virtualization functions implemented by networkvirtualization devices (NVDs) (e.g., smartNICs), top-of-rack (TOR)switches, smart TORs that implement one or more functions performed byan NVD, and other mechanisms) to create layers of network abstractionthat can be run on top of the physical network. Virtual networks cantake on many forms, including peer-to-peer networks, IP networks, andothers. Virtual networks are typically either Layer-3 IP networks orLayer-2 VLANs. This method of virtual or overlay networking is oftenreferred to as virtual or overlay Layer-3 networking. Examples ofprotocols developed for virtual networks include IP-in-IP (or GenericRouting Encapsulation (GRE)), Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN-IETF RFC7348), Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) (e.g., MPLS Layer-3 VirtualPrivate Networks (RFC 4364)), VMware's NSX, GENEVE (Generic NetworkVirtualization Encapsulation), and others.

For IaaS, the infrastructure (CSPI) provided by a CSP can be configuredto provide virtualized computing resources over a public network (e.g.,the Internet). In an IaaS model, a cloud computing services provider canhost the infrastructure components (e.g., servers, storage devices,network nodes (e.g., hardware), deployment software, platformvirtualization (e.g., a hypervisor layer), or the like). In some cases,an IaaS provider may also supply a variety of services to accompanythose infrastructure components (e.g., billing, monitoring, logging,security, load balancing and clustering, etc.). Thus, as these servicesmay be policy-driven, IaaS users may be able to implement policies todrive load balancing to maintain application availability andperformance. CSPI provides infrastructure and a set of complementarycloud services that enable customers to build and run a wide range ofapplications and services in a highly available hosted distributedenvironment. CSPI offers high-performance compute resources andcapabilities and storage capacity in a flexible virtual network that issecurely accessible from various networked locations such as from acustomer's on-premises network. When a customer subscribes to orregisters for an IaaS service provided by a CSP, the tenancy created forthat customer is a secure and isolated partition within the CSPI wherethe customer can create, organize, and administer their cloud resources.

Customers can build their own virtual networks using compute, memory,and networking resources provided by CSPI. One or more customerresources or workloads, such as compute instances, can be deployed onthese virtual networks. For example, a customer can use resourcesprovided by CSPI to build one or multiple customizable and privatevirtual network(s) referred to as virtual cloud networks (VCNs). Acustomer can deploy one or more customer resources, such as computeinstances, on a customer VCN. Compute instances can take the form ofvirtual machines, bare metal instances, and the like. The CSPI thusprovides infrastructure and a set of complementary cloud services thatenable customers to build and run a wide range of applications andservices in a highly available virtual hosted environment. The customerdoes not manage or control the underlying physical resources provided byCSPI but has control over operating systems, storage, and deployedapplications; and possibly limited control of select networkingcomponents (e.g., firewalls).

The CSP may provide a console that enables customers and networkadministrators to configure, access, and manage resources deployed inthe cloud using CSPI resources. In certain embodiments, the consoleprovides a web-based user interface that can be used to access andmanage CSPI. In some implementations, the console is a web-basedapplication provided by the CSP.

CSPI may support single-tenancy or multi-tenancy architectures. In asingle tenancy architecture, a software (e.g., an application, adatabase) or a hardware component (e.g., a host machine or a server)serves a single customer or tenant. In a multi-tenancy architecture, asoftware or a hardware component serves multiple customers or tenants.Thus, in a multi-tenancy architecture, CSPI resources are shared betweenmultiple customers or tenants. In a multi-tenancy situation, precautionsare taken and safeguards put in place within CSPI to ensure that eachtenant's data is isolated and remains invisible to other tenants.

In a physical network, a network endpoint (“endpoint”) refers to acomputing device or system that is connected to a physical network andcommunicates back and forth with the network to which it is connected. Anetwork endpoint in the physical network may be connected to a LocalArea Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), or other type of physicalnetwork. Examples of traditional endpoints in a physical network includemodems, hubs, bridges, switches, routers, and other networking devices,physical computers (or host machines), and the like. Each physicaldevice in the physical network has a fixed network address that can beused to communicate with the device. This fixed network address can be aLayer-2 address (e.g., a MAC address), a fixed Layer-3 address (e.g., anIP address), and the like. In a virtualized environment or in a virtualnetwork, the endpoints can include various virtual endpoints such asvirtual machines that are hosted by components of the physical network(e.g., hosted by physical host machines). These endpoints in the virtualnetwork are addressed by overlay addresses such as overlay Layer-2addresses (e.g., overlay MAC addresses) and overlay Layer-3 addresses(e.g., overlay IP addresses). Network overlays enable flexibility byallowing network managers to move around the overlay addressesassociated with network endpoints using software management (e.g., viasoftware implementing a control plane for the virtual network).Accordingly, unlike in a physical network, in a virtual network, anoverlay address (e.g., an overlay IP address) can be moved from oneendpoint to another using network management software. Since the virtualnetwork is built on top of a physical network, communications betweencomponents in the virtual network involves both the virtual network andthe underlying physical network. In order to facilitate suchcommunications, the components of CSPI are configured to learn and storemappings that map overlay addresses in the virtual network to actualphysical addresses in the substrate network, and vice versa. Thesemappings are then used to facilitate the communications. Customertraffic is encapsulated to facilitate routing in the virtual network.

Accordingly, physical addresses (e.g., physical IP addresses) areassociated with components in physical networks and overlay addresses(e.g., overlay IP addresses) are associated with entities in virtual oroverlay networks. A physical IP address is an IP address associated witha physical device (e.g., a network device) in the substrate or physicalnetwork. For example, each NVD has an associated physical IP address. Anoverlay IP address is an overlay address associated with an entity in anoverlay network, such as with a compute instance in a customer's virtualcloud network (VCN). Two different customers or tenants, each with theirown private VCNs can potentially use the same overlay IP address intheir VCNs without any knowledge of each other. Both the physical IPaddresses and overlay IP addresses are types of real IP addresses. Theseare separate from virtual IP addresses. A virtual IP address istypically a single IP address that represents or maps to multiple realIP addresses. A virtual IP address provides a 1-to-many mapping betweenthe virtual IP address and multiple real IP addresses. For example, aload balancer may user a VIP to map to or represent multiple server,each server having its own real IP address.

The cloud infrastructure or CSPI is physically hosted in one or moredata centers in one or more regions around the world. The CSPI mayinclude components in the physical or substrate network and virtualizedcomponents (e.g., virtual networks, compute instances, virtual machines,etc.) that are in an virtual network built on top of the physicalnetwork components. In certain embodiments, the CSPI is organized andhosted in realms, regions and availability domains. A region istypically a localized geographic area that contains one or more datacenters. Regions are generally independent of each other and can beseparated by vast distances, for example, across countries or evencontinents. For example, a first region may be in Australia, another onein Japan, yet another one in India, and the like. CSPI resources aredivided among regions such that each region has its own independentsubset of CSPI resources. Each region may provide a set of coreinfrastructure services and resources, such as, compute resources (e.g.,bare metal servers, virtual machine, containers and relatedinfrastructure, etc.); storage resources (e.g., block volume storage,file storage, object storage, archive storage); networking resources(e.g., virtual cloud networks (VCNs), load balancing resources,connections to on-premise networks), database resources; edge networkingresources (e.g., DNS); and access management and monitoring resources,and others. Each region generally has multiple paths connecting it toother regions in the realm.

Generally, an application is deployed in a region (i.e., deployed oninfrastructure associated with that region) where it is most heavilyused, because using nearby resources is faster than using distantresources. Applications can also be deployed in different regions forvarious reasons, such as redundancy to mitigate the risk of region-wideevents such as large weather systems or earthquakes, to meet varyingrequirements for legal jurisdictions, tax domains, and other business orsocial criteria, and the like.

The data centers within a region can be further organized and subdividedinto availability domains (ADs). An availability domain may correspondto one or more data centers located within a region. A region can becomposed of one or more availability domains. In such a distributedenvironment, CSPI resources are either region-specific, such as avirtual cloud network (VCN), or availability domain-specific, such as acompute instance.

ADs within a region are isolated from each other, fault tolerant, andare configured such that they are very unlikely to fail simultaneously.This is achieved by the ADs not sharing critical infrastructureresources such as networking, physical cables, cable paths, cable entrypoints, etc., such that a failure at one AD within a region is unlikelyto impact the availability of the other ADs within the same region. TheADs within the same region may be connected to each other by a lowlatency, high bandwidth network, which makes it possible to providehigh-availability connectivity to other networks (e.g., the Internet,customers' on-premise networks, etc.) and to build replicated systems inmultiple ADs for both high-availability and disaster recovery. Cloudservices use multiple ADs to ensure high availability and to protectagainst resource failure. As the infrastructure provided by the IaaSprovider grows, more regions and ADs may be added with additionalcapacity. Traffic between availability domains is usually encrypted.

In certain embodiments, regions are grouped into realms. A realm is alogical collection of regions. Realms are isolated from each other anddo not share any data. Regions in the same realm may communicate witheach other, but regions in different realms cannot. A customer's tenancyor account with the CSP exists in a single realm and can be spreadacross one or more regions that belong to that realm. Typically, when acustomer subscribes to an IaaS service, a tenancy or account is createdfor that customer in the customer-specified region (referred to as the“home” region) within a realm. A customer can extend the customer'stenancy across one or more other regions within the realm. A customercannot access regions that are not in the realm where the customer'stenancy exists.

An IaaS provider can provide multiple realms, each realm catered to aparticular set of customers or users. For example, a commercial realmmay be provided for commercial customers. As another example, a realmmay be provided for a specific country for customers within thatcountry. As yet another example, a government realm may be provided fora government, and the like. For example, the government realm may becatered for a specific government and may have a heightened level ofsecurity than a commercial realm. For example, Oracle CloudInfrastructure (OCI) currently offers a realm for commercial regions andtwo realms (e.g., FedRAMP authorized and IL5 authorized) for governmentcloud regions.

In certain embodiments, an AD can be subdivided into one or more faultdomains. A fault domain is a grouping of infrastructure resources withinan AD to provide anti-affinity. Fault domains allow for the distributionof compute instances such that the instances are not on the samephysical hardware within a single AD. This is known as anti-affinity. Afault domain refers to a set of hardware components (computers,switches, and more) that share a single point of failure. A compute poolis logically divided up into fault domains. Due to this, a hardwarefailure or compute hardware maintenance event that affects one faultdomain does not affect instances in other fault domains. Depending onthe embodiment, the number of fault domains for each AD may vary. Forinstance, in certain embodiments each AD contains three fault domains. Afault domain acts as a logical data center within an AD.

When a customer subscribes to an IaaS service, resources from CSPI areprovisioned for the customer and associated with the customer's tenancy.The customer can use these provisioned resources to build privatenetworks and deploy resources on these networks. The customer networksthat are hosted in the cloud by the CSPI are referred to as virtualcloud networks (VCNs). A customer can set up one or more virtual cloudnetworks (VCNs) using CSPI resources allocated for the customer. A VCNis a virtual or software defined private network. The customer resourcesthat are deployed in the customer's VCN can include compute instances(e.g., virtual machines, bare-metal instances) and other resources.These compute instances may represent various customer workloads such asapplications, load balancers, databases, and the like. A computeinstance deployed on a VCN can communicate with public accessibleendpoints (“public endpoints”) over a public network such as theInternet, with other instances in the same VCN or other VCNs (e.g., thecustomer's other VCNs, or VCNs not belonging to the customer), with thecustomer's on-premise data centers or networks, and with serviceendpoints, and other types of endpoints.

The CSP may provide various services using the CSPI. In some instances,customers of CSPI may themselves act like service providers and provideservices using CSPI resources. A service provider may expose a serviceendpoint, which is characterized by identification information (e.g., anIP Address, a DNS name and port). A customer's resource (e.g., a computeinstance) can consume a particular service by accessing a serviceendpoint exposed by the service for that particular service. Theseservice endpoints are generally endpoints that are publicly accessibleby users using public IP addresses associated with the endpoints via apublic communication network such as the Internet. Network endpointsthat are publicly accessible are also sometimes referred to as publicendpoints.

In certain embodiments, a service provider may expose a service via anendpoint (sometimes referred to as a service endpoint) for the service.Customers of the service can then use this service endpoint to accessthe service. In certain implementations, a service endpoint provided fora service can be accessed by multiple customers that intend to consumethat service. In other implementations, a dedicated service endpoint maybe provided for a customer such that only that customer can access theservice using that dedicated service endpoint.

In certain embodiments, when a VCN is created, it is associated with aprivate overlay Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) address space,which is a range of private overlay IP addresses that are assigned tothe VCN (e.g., 10.0/16). A VCN includes associated subnets, routetables, and gateways. A VCN resides within a single region but can spanone or more or all of the region's availability domains. A gateway is avirtual interface that is configured for a VCN and enables communicationof traffic to and from the VCN to one or more endpoints outside the VCN.One or more different types of gateways may be configured for a VCN toenable communication to and from different types of endpoints.

A VCN can be subdivided into one or more sub-networks such as one ormore subnets. A subnet is thus a unit of configuration or a subdivisionthat can be created within a VCN. A VCN can have one or multiplesubnets. Each subnet within a VCN is associated with a contiguous rangeof overlay IP addresses (e.g., 10.0.0.0/24 and 10.0.1.0/24) that do notoverlap with other subnets in that VCN and which represent an addressspace subset within the address space of the VCN.

Each compute instance is associated with a virtual network interfacecard (VNIC), that enables the compute instance to participate in asubnet of a VCN. A VNIC is a logical representation of physical NetworkInterface Card (NIC). In general. a VNIC is an interface between anentity (e.g., a compute instance, a service) and a virtual network. AVNIC exists in a subnet, has one or more associated IP addresses, andassociated security rules or policies. A VNIC is equivalent to a Layer-2port on a switch. A VNIC is attached to a compute instance and to asubnet within a VCN. A VNIC associated with a compute instance enablesthe compute instance to be a part of a subnet of a VCN and enables thecompute instance to communicate (e.g., send and receive packets) withendpoints that are on the same subnet as the compute instance, withendpoints in different subnets in the VCN, or with endpoints outside theVCN. The VNIC associated with a compute instance thus determines how thecompute instance connects with endpoints inside and outside the VCN. AVNIC for a compute instance is created and associated with that computeinstance when the compute instance is created and added to a subnetwithin a VCN. For a subnet comprising a set of compute instances, thesubnet contains the VNICs corresponding to the set of compute instances,each VNIC attached to a compute instance within the set of computerinstances.

Each compute instance is assigned a private overlay IP address via theVNIC associated with the compute instance. This private overlay IPaddress is assigned to the VNIC that is associated with the computeinstance when the compute instance is created and used for routingtraffic to and from the compute instance. All VNICs in a given subnetuse the same route table, security lists, and DHCP options. As describedabove, each subnet within a VCN is associated with a contiguous range ofoverlay IP addresses (e.g., 10.0.0.0/24 and 10.0.1.0/24) that do notoverlap with other subnets in that VCN and which represent an addressspace subset within the address space of the VCN. For a VNIC on aparticular subnet of a VCN, the private overlay IP address that isassigned to the VNIC is an address from the contiguous range of overlayIP addresses allocated for the subnet.

In certain embodiments, a compute instance may optionally be assignedadditional overlay IP addresses in addition to the private overlay IPaddress, such as, for example, one or more public IP addresses if in apublic subnet. These multiple addresses are assigned either on the sameVNIC or over multiple VNICs that are associated with the computeinstance. Each instance however has a primary VNIC that is createdduring instance launch and is associated with the overlay private IPaddress assigned to the instance—this primary VNIC cannot be removed.Additional VNICs, referred to as secondary VNICs, can be added to anexisting instance in the same availability domain as the primary VNIC.All the VNICs are in the same availability domain as the instance. Asecondary VNIC can be in a subnet in the same VCN as the primary VNIC,or in a different subnet that is either in the same VCN or a differentone.

A compute instance may optionally be assigned a public IP address if itis in a public subnet. A subnet can be designated as either a publicsubnet or a private subnet at the time the subnet is created. A privatesubnet means that the resources (e.g., compute instances) and associatedVNICs in the subnet cannot have public overlay IP addresses. A publicsubnet means that the resources and associated VNICs in the subnet canhave public IP addresses. A customer can designate a subnet to existeither in a single availability domain or across multiple availabilitydomains in a region or realm.

As described above, a VCN may be subdivided into one or more subnets. Incertain embodiments, a Virtual Router (VR) configured for the VCN(referred to as the VCN VR or just VR) enables communications betweenthe subnets of the VCN. For a subnet within a VCN, the VR represents alogical gateway for that subnet that enables the subnet (i.e., thecompute instances on that subnet) to communicate with endpoints on othersubnets within the VCN, and with other endpoints outside the VCN. TheVCN VR is a logical entity that is configured to route traffic betweenVNICs in the VCN and virtual gateways (“gateways”) associated with theVCN. Gateways are further described below with respect to FIG. 1 . A VCNVR is a Layer-3/IP Layer concept. In one embodiment, there is one VCN VRfor a VCN where the VCN VR has potentially an unlimited number of portsaddressed by IP addresses, with one port for each subnet of the VCN. Inthis manner, the VCN VR has a different IP address for each subnet inthe VCN that the VCN VR is attached to. The VR is also connected to thevarious gateways configured for a VCN. In certain embodiments, aparticular overlay IP address from the overlay IP address range for asubnet is reserved for a port of the VCN VR for that subnet. Forexample, consider a VCN having two subnets with associated addressranges 10.0/16 and 10.1/16, respectively. For the first subnet withinthe VCN with address range 10.0/16, an address from this range isreserved for a port of the VCN VR for that subnet. In some instances,the first IP address from the range may be reserved for the VCN VR. Forexample, for the subnet with overlay IP address range 10.0/16, IPaddress 10.0.0.1 may be reserved for a port of the VCN VR for thatsubnet. For the second subnet within the same VCN with address range10.1/16, the VCN VR may have a port for that second subnet with IPaddress 10.1.0.1. The VCN VR has a different IP address for each of thesubnets in the VCN.

In some other embodiments, each subnet within a VCN may have its ownassociated VR that is addressable by the subnet using a reserved ordefault IP address associated with the VR. The reserved or default IPaddress may, for example, be the first IP address from the range of IPaddresses associated with that subnet. The VNICs in the subnet cancommunicate (e.g., send and receive packets) with the VR associated withthe subnet using this default or reserved IP address. In such anembodiment, the VR is the ingress/egress point for that subnet. The VRassociated with a subnet within the VCN can communicate with other VRsassociated with other subnets within the VCN. The VRs can alsocommunicate with gateways associated with the VCN. The VR function for asubnet is running on or executed by one or more NVDs executing VNICsfunctionality for VNICs in the subnet.

Route tables, security rules, and DHCP options may be configured for aVCN. Route tables are virtual route tables for the VCN and include rulesto route traffic from subnets within the VCN to destinations outside theVCN by way of gateways or specially configured instances. A VCN's routetables can be customized to control how packets are forwarded/routed toand from the VCN. DHCP options refers to configuration information thatis automatically provided to the instances when they boot up.

Security rules configured for a VCN represent overlay firewall rules forthe VCN. The security rules can include ingress and egress rules, andspecify the types of traffic (e.g., based upon protocol and port) thatis allowed in and out of the instances within the VCN. The customer canchoose whether a given rule is stateful or stateless. For instance, thecustomer can allow incoming SSH traffic from anywhere to a set ofinstances by setting up a stateful ingress rule with source CIDR0.0.0.0/0, and destination TCP port 22. Security rules can beimplemented using network security groups or security lists. A networksecurity group consists of a set of security rules that apply only tothe resources in that group. A security list, on the other hand,includes rules that apply to all the resources in any subnet that usesthe security list. A VCN may be provided with a default security listwith default security rules. DHCP options configured for a VCN provideconfiguration information that is automatically provided to theinstances in the VCN when the instances boot up.

In certain embodiments, the configuration information for a VCN isdetermined and stored by a VCN Control Plane. The configurationinformation for a VCN may include, for example, information about: theaddress range associated with the VCN, subnets within the VCN andassociated information, one or more VRs associated with the VCN, computeinstances in the VCN and associated VNICs, NVDs executing the variousvirtualization network functions (e.g., VNICs, VRs, gateways) associatedwith the VCN, state information for the VCN, and other VCN-relatedinformation. In certain embodiments, a VCN Distribution Servicepublishes the configuration information stored by the VCN Control Plane,or portions thereof, to the NVDs. The distributed information may beused to update information (e.g., forwarding tables, routing tables,etc.) stored and used by the NVDs to forward packets to and from thecompute instances in the VCN.

In certain embodiments, the creation of VCNs and subnets are handled bya VCN Control Plane (CP) and the launching of compute instances ishandled by a Compute Control Plane. The Compute Control Plane isresponsible for allocating the physical resources for the computeinstance and then calls the VCN Control Plane to create and attach VNICsto the compute instance. The VCN CP also sends VCN data mappings to theVCN data plane that is configured to perform packet forwarding androuting functions. In certain embodiments, the VCN CP provides adistribution service that is responsible for providing updates to theVCN data plane. Examples of a VCN Control Plane are also depicted inFIGS. 11, 12, 13, and 14 (see references 1116, 1216, 1316, and 1416) anddescribed below.

A customer may create one or more VCNs using resources hosted by CSPI. Acompute instance deployed on a customer VCN may communicate withdifferent endpoints. These endpoints can include endpoints that arehosted by CSPI and endpoints outside CSPI.

Various different architectures for implementing cloud-based serviceusing CSPI are depicted in FIGS. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 11, 12, 13, and 15 , andare described below. FIG. 1 is a high level diagram of a distributedenvironment 100 showing an overlay or customer VCN hosted by CSPIaccording to certain embodiments. The distributed environment depictedin FIG. 1 includes multiple components in the overlay network.Distributed environment 100 depicted in FIG. 1 is merely an example andis not intended to unduly limit the scope of claimed embodiments. Manyvariations, alternatives, and modifications are possible. For example,in some implementations, the distributed environment depicted in FIG. 1may have more or fewer systems or components than those shown in FIG. 1, may combine two or more systems, or may have a different configurationor arrangement of systems.

As shown in the example depicted in FIG. 1 , distributed environment 100comprises CSPI 101 that provides services and resources that customerscan subscribe to and use to build their virtual cloud networks (VCNs).In certain embodiments, CSPI 101 offers IaaS services to subscribingcustomers. The data centers within CSPI 101 may be organized into one ormore regions. One example region “Region US” 102 is shown in FIG. 1 . Acustomer has configured a customer VCN 104 for region 102. The customermay deploy various compute instances on VCN 104, where the computeinstances may include virtual machines or bare metal instances. Examplesof instances include applications, database, load balancers, and thelike.

In the embodiment depicted in FIG. 1 , customer VCN 104 comprises twosubnets, namely, “Subnet-1” and “Subnet-2”, each subnet with its ownCIDR IP address range. In FIG. 1 , the overlay IP address range forSubnet-1 is 10.0/16 and the address range for Subnet-2 is 10.1/16. A VCNVirtual Router 105 represents a logical gateway for the VCN that enablescommunications between subnets of the VCN 104, and with other endpointsoutside the VCN. VCN VR 105 is configured to route traffic between VNICsin VCN 104 and gateways associated with VCN 104. VCN VR 105 provides aport for each subnet of VCN 104. For example, VR 105 may provide a portwith IP address 10.0.0.1 for Subnet-1 and a port with IP address10.1.0.1 for Subnet-2.

Multiple compute instances may be deployed on each subnet, where thecompute instances can be virtual machine instances, and/or bare metalinstances. The compute instances in a subnet may be hosted by one ormore host machines within CSPI 101. A compute instance participates in asubnet via a VNIC associated with the compute instance. For example, asshown in FIG. 1 , a compute instance C1 is part of Subnet-1 via a VNICassociated with the compute instance. Likewise, compute instance C2 ispart of Subnet-1 via a VNIC associated with C2. In a similar manner,multiple compute instances, which may be virtual machine instances orbare metal instances, may be part of Subnet-1. Via its associated VNIC,each compute instance is assigned a private overlay IP address and aMedia access control address (MAC address). For example, in FIG. 1 ,compute instance C1 has an overlay IP address of 10.0.0.2 and a MACaddress of M1, while compute instance C2 has an private overlay IPaddress of 10.0.0.3 and a MAC address of M2. Each compute instance inSubnet-1, including compute instances C1 and C2, has a default route toVCN VR 105 using IP address 10.0.0.1, which is the IP address for a portof VCN VR 105 for Subnet-1.

Subnet-2 can have multiple compute instances deployed on it, includingvirtual machine instances and/or bare metal instances. For example, asshown in FIG. 1 , compute instances D1 and D2 are part of Subnet-2 viaVNICs associated with the respective compute instances. In theembodiment depicted in FIG. 1 , compute instance D1 has an overlay IPaddress of 10.1.0.2 and a MAC address of MM1, while compute instance D2has an private overlay IP address of 10.1.0.3 and a MAC address of MM2.Each compute instance in Subnet-2, including compute instances D1 andD2, has a default route to VCN VR 105 using IP address 10.1.0.1, whichis the IP address for a port of VCN VR 105 for Subnet-2.

VCN A 104 may also include one or more load balancers. For example, aload balancer may be provided for a subnet and may be configured to loadbalance traffic across multiple compute instances on the subnet. A loadbalancer may also be provided to load balance traffic across subnets inthe VCN.

A particular compute instance deployed on VCN 104 can communicate withvarious different endpoints. These endpoints may include endpoints thatare hosted by CSPI 200 and endpoints outside CSPI 200. Endpoints thatare hosted by CSPI 101 may include: an endpoint on the same subnet asthe particular compute instance (e.g., communications between twocompute instances in Subnet-1); an endpoint on a different subnet butwithin the same VCN (e.g., communication between a compute instance inSubnet-1 and a compute instance in Subnet-2); an endpoint in a differentVCN in the same region (e.g., communications between a compute instancein Subnet-1 and an endpoint in a VCN in the same region 106 or 110,communications between a compute instance in Subnet-1 and an endpoint inservice network 110 in the same region); or an endpoint in a VCN in adifferent region (e.g., communications between a compute instance inSubnet-1 and an endpoint in a VCN in a different region 108). A computeinstance in a subnet hosted by CSPI 101 may also communicate withendpoints that are not hosted by CSPI 101 (i.e., are outside CSPI 101).These outside endpoints include endpoints in the customer's on-premisenetwork 116, endpoints within other remote cloud hosted networks 118,public endpoints 114 accessible via a public network such as theInternet, and other endpoints.

Communications between compute instances on the same subnet arefacilitated using VNICs associated with the source compute instance andthe destination compute instance. For example, compute instance C1 inSubnet-1 may want to send packets to compute instance C2 in Subnet-1.For a packet originating at a source compute instance and whosedestination is another compute instance in the same subnet, the packetis first processed by the VNIC associated with the source computeinstance. Processing performed by the VNIC associated with the sourcecompute instance can include determining destination information for thepacket from the packet headers, identifying any policies (e.g., securitylists) configured for the VNIC associated with the source computeinstance, determining a next hop for the packet, performing any packetencapsulation/decapsulation functions as needed, and thenforwarding/routing the packet to the next hop with the goal offacilitating communication of the packet to its intended destination.When the destination compute instance is in the same subnet as thesource compute instance, the VNIC associated with the source computeinstance is configured to identify the VNIC associated with thedestination compute instance and forward the packet to that VNIC forprocessing. The VNIC associated with the destination compute instance isthen executed and forwards the packet to the destination computeinstance.

For a packet to be communicated from a compute instance in a subnet toan endpoint in a different subnet in the same VCN, the communication isfacilitated by the VNICs associated with the source and destinationcompute instances and the VCN VR. For example, if compute instance C1 inSubnet-1 in FIG. 1 wants to send a packet to compute instance D1 inSubnet-2, the packet is first processed by the VNIC associated withcompute instance C1. The VNIC associated with compute instance C1 isconfigured to route the packet to the VCN VR 105 using default route orport 10.0.0.1 of the VCN VR. VCN VR 105 is configured to route thepacket to Subnet-2 using port 10.1.0.1. The packet is then received andprocessed by the VNIC associated with D1 and the VNIC forwards thepacket to compute instance D1.

For a packet to be communicated from a compute instance in VCN 104 to anendpoint that is outside VCN 104, the communication is facilitated bythe VNIC associated with the source compute instance, VCN VR 105, andgateways associated with VCN 104. One or more types of gateways may beassociated with VCN 104. A gateway is an interface between a VCN andanother endpoint, where the another endpoint is outside the VCN. Agateway is a Layer-3/IP layer concept and enables a VCN to communicatewith endpoints outside the VCN. A gateway thus facilitates traffic flowbetween a VCN and other VCNs or networks. Various different types ofgateways may be configured for a VCN to facilitate different types ofcommunications with different types of endpoints. Depending upon thegateway, the communications may be over public networks (e.g., theInternet) or over private networks. Various communication protocols maybe used for these communications.

For example, compute instance C1 may want to communicate with anendpoint outside VCN 104. The packet may be first processed by the VNICassociated with source compute instance C1. The VNIC processingdetermines that the destination for the packet is outside the Subnet-1of C1. The VNIC associated with C1 may forward the packet to VCN VR 105for VCN 104. VCN VR 105 then processes the packet and as part of theprocessing, based upon the destination for the packet, determines aparticular gateway associated with VCN 104 as the next hop for thepacket. VCN VR 105 may then forward the packet to the particularidentified gateway. For example, if the destination is an endpointwithin the customer's on-premise network, then the packet may beforwarded by VCN VR 105 to Dynamic Routing Gateway (DRG) gateway 122configured for VCN 104. The packet may then be forwarded from thegateway to a next hop to facilitate communication of the packet to itfinal intended destination.

Various different types of gateways may be configured for a VCN.Examples of gateways that may be configured for a VCN are depicted inFIG. 1 and described below. Examples of gateways associated with a VCNare also depicted in FIGS. 11, 12, 13, and 14 (for example, gatewaysreferenced by reference numbers 1134, 1136, 1138, 1234, 1236, 1238,1334, 1336, 1338, 1434, 1436, and 1438) and described below. As shown inthe embodiment depicted in FIG. 1 , a Dynamic Routing Gateway (DRG) 122may be added to or be associated with customer VCN 104 and provides apath for private network traffic communication between customer VCN 104and another endpoint, where the another endpoint can be the customer'son-premise network 116, a VCN 108 in a different region of CSPI 101, orother remote cloud networks 118 not hosted by CSPI 101. Customeron-premise network 116 may be a customer network or a customer datacenter built using the customer's resources. Access to customeron-premise network 116 is generally very restricted. For a customer thathas both a customer on-premise network 116 and one or more VCNs 104deployed or hosted in the cloud by CSPI 101, the customer may want theiron-premise network 116 and their cloud-based VCN 104 to be able tocommunicate with each other. This enables a customer to build anextended hybrid environment encompassing the customer's VCN 104 hostedby CSPI 101 and their on-premises network 116. DRG 122 enables thiscommunication. To enable such communications, a communication channel124 is set up where one endpoint of the channel is in customeron-premise network 116 and the other endpoint is in CSPI 101 andconnected to customer VCN 104. Communication channel 124 can be overpublic communication networks such as the Internet or privatecommunication networks. Various different communication protocols may beused such as IPsec VPN technology over a public communication networksuch as the Internet, Oracle's FastConnect technology that uses aprivate network instead of a public network, and others. The device orequipment in customer on-premise network 116 that forms one end pointfor communication channel 124 is referred to as the customer premiseequipment (CPE), such as CPE 126 depicted in FIG. 1 . On the CSPI 101side, the endpoint may be a host machine executing DRG 122.

In certain embodiments, a Remote Peering Connection (RPC) can be addedto a DRG, which allows a customer to peer one VCN with another VCN in adifferent region. Using such an RPC, customer VCN 104 can use DRG 122 toconnect with a VCN 108 in another region. DRG 122 may also be used tocommunicate with other remote cloud networks 118, not hosted by CSPI 101such as a Microsoft Azure cloud, Amazon AWS cloud, and others.

As shown in FIG. 1 , an Internet Gateway (IGW) 120 may be configured forcustomer VCN 104 the enables a compute instance on VCN 104 tocommunicate with public endpoints 114 accessible over a public networksuch as the Internet. IGW 1120 is a gateway that connects a VCN to apublic network such as the Internet. IGW 120 enables a public subnet(where the resources in the public subnet have public overlay IPaddresses) within a VCN, such as VCN 104, direct access to publicendpoints 112 on a public network 114 such as the Internet. Using IGW120, connections can be initiated from a subnet within VCN 104 or fromthe Internet.

A Network Address Translation (NAT) gateway 128 can be configured forcustomer's VCN 104 and enables cloud resources in the customer's VCN,which do not have dedicated public overlay IP addresses, access to theInternet and it does so without exposing those resources to directincoming Internet connections (e.g., L4-L7 connections). This enables aprivate subnet within a VCN, such as private Subnet-1 in VCN 104, withprivate access to public endpoints on the Internet. In NAT gateways,connections can be initiated only from the private subnet to the publicInternet and not from the Internet to the private subnet.

In certain embodiments, a Service Gateway (SGW) 126 can be configuredfor customer VCN 104 and provides a path for private network trafficbetween VCN 104 and supported services endpoints in a service network110. In certain embodiments, service network 110 may be provided by theCSP and may provide various services. An example of such a servicenetwork is Oracle's Services Network, which provides various servicesthat can be used by customers. For example, a compute instance (e.g., adatabase system) in a private subnet of customer VCN 104 can back updata to a service endpoint (e.g., Object Storage) without needing publicIP addresses or access to the Internet. In certain embodiments, a VCNcan have only one SGW, and connections can only be initiated from asubnet within the VCN and not from service network 110. If a VCN ispeered with another, resources in the other VCN typically cannot accessthe SGW. Resources in on-premises networks that are connected to a VCNwith FastConnect or VPN Connect can also use the service gatewayconfigured for that VCN.

In certain implementations, SGW 126 uses the concept of a serviceClassless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) label, which is a string thatrepresents all the regional public IP address ranges for the service orgroup of services of interest. The customer uses the service CIDR labelwhen they configure the SGW and related route rules to control trafficto the service. The customer can optionally utilize it when configuringsecurity rules without needing to adjust them if the service's public IPaddresses change in the future.

A Local Peering Gateway (LPG) 132 is a gateway that can be added tocustomer VCN 104 and enables VCN 104 to peer with another VCN in thesame region. Peering means that the VCNs communicate using private IPaddresses, without the traffic traversing a public network such as theInternet or without routing the traffic through the customer'son-premises network 116. In preferred embodiments, a VCN has a separateLPG for each peering it establishes. Local Peering or VCN Peering is acommon practice used to establish network connectivity between differentapplications or infrastructure management functions.

Service providers, such as providers of services in service network 110,may provide access to services using different access models. Accordingto a public access model, services may be exposed as public endpointsthat are publicly accessible by compute instance in a customer VCN via apublic network such as the Internet and or may be privately accessiblevia SGW 126. According to a specific private access model, services aremade accessible as private IP endpoints in a private subnet in thecustomer's VCN. This is referred to as a Private Endpoint (PE) accessand enables a service provider to expose their service as an instance inthe customer's private network. A Private Endpoint resource represents aservice within the customer's VCN. Each PE manifests as a VNIC (referredto as a PE-VNIC, with one or more private IPs) in a subnet chosen by thecustomer in the customer's VCN. A PE thus provides a way to present aservice within a private customer VCN subnet using a VNIC. Since theendpoint is exposed as a VNIC, all the features associates with a VNICsuch as routing rules, security lists, etc., are now available for thePE VNIC.

A service provider can register their service to enable access through aPE. The provider can associate policies with the service that restrictsthe service's visibility to the customer tenancies. A provider canregister multiple services under a single virtual IP address (VIP),especially for multi-tenant services. There may be multiple such privateendpoints (in multiple VCNs) that represent the same service.

Compute instances in the private subnet can then use the PE VNIC'sprivate IP address or the service DNS name to access the service.Compute instances in the customer VCN can access the service by sendingtraffic to the private IP address of the PE in the customer VCN. APrivate Access Gateway (PAGW) 130 is a gateway resource that can beattached to a service provider VCN (e.g., a VCN in service network 110)that acts as an ingress/egress point for all traffic from/to customersubnet private endpoints. PAGW 130 enables a provider to scale thenumber of PE connections without utilizing its internal IP addressresources. A provider needs only configure one PAGW for any number ofservices registered in a single VCN. Providers can represent a serviceas a private endpoint in multiple VCNs of one or more customers. Fromthe customer's perspective, the PE VNIC, which, instead of beingattached to a customer's instance, appears attached to the service withwhich the customer wishes to interact. The traffic destined to theprivate endpoint is routed via PAGW 130 to the service. These arereferred to as customer-to-service private connections (C2Sconnections).

The PE concept can also be used to extend the private access for theservice to customer's on-premises networks and data centers, by allowingthe traffic to flow through FastConnect/IPsec links and the privateendpoint in the customer VCN. Private access for the service can also beextended to the customer's peered VCNs, by allowing the traffic to flowbetween LPG 132 and the PE in the customer's VCN.

A customer can control routing in a VCN at the subnet level, so thecustomer can specify which subnets in the customer's VCN, such as VCN104, use each gateway. A VCN's route tables are used to decide iftraffic is allowed out of a VCN through a particular gateway. Forexample, in a particular instance, a route table for a public subnetwithin customer VCN 104 may send non-local traffic through IGW 120. Theroute table for a private subnet within the same customer VCN 104 maysend traffic destined for CSP services through SGW 126. All remainingtraffic may be sent via the NAT gateway 128. Route tables only controltraffic going out of a VCN.

Security lists associated with a VCN are used to control traffic thatcomes into a VCN via a gateway via inbound connections. All resources ina subnet use the same route table and security lists. Security lists maybe used to control specific types of traffic allowed in and out ofinstances in a subnet of a VCN. Security list rules may comprise ingress(inbound) and egress (outbound) rules. For example, an ingress rule mayspecify an allowed source address range, while an egress rule mayspecify an allowed destination address range. Security rules may specifya particular protocol (e.g., TCP, ICMP), a particular port (e.g., 22 forSSH, 3389 for Windows RDP), etc. In certain implementations, aninstance's operating system may enforce its own firewall rules that arealigned with the security list rules. Rules may be stateful (e.g., aconnection is tracked and the response is automatically allowed withoutan explicit security list rule for the response traffic) or stateless.

Access from a customer VCN (i.e., by a resource or compute instancedeployed on VCN 104) can be categorized as public access, privateaccess, or dedicated access. Public access refers to an access modelwhere a public IP address or a NAT is used to access a public endpoint.Private access enables customer workloads in VCN 104 with private IPaddresses (e.g., resources in a private subnet) to access serviceswithout traversing a public network such as the Internet. In certainembodiments, CSPI 101 enables customer VCN workloads with private IPaddresses to access the (public service endpoints of) services using aservice gateway. A service gateway thus offers a private access model byestablishing a virtual link between the customer's VCN and the service'spublic endpoint residing outside the customer's private network.

Additionally, CSPI may offer dedicated public access using technologiessuch as FastConnect public peering where customer on-premises instancescan access one or more services in a customer VCN using a FastConnectconnection and without traversing a public network such as the Internet.CSPI also may also offer dedicated private access using FastConnectprivate peering where customer on-premises instances with private IPaddresses can access the customer's VCN workloads using a FastConnectconnection. FastConnect is a network connectivity alternative to usingthe public Internet to connect a customer's on-premise network to CSPIand its services. FastConnect provides an easy, elastic, and economicalway to create a dedicated and private connection with higher bandwidthoptions and a more reliable and consistent networking experience whencompared to Internet-based connections.

FIG. 1 and the accompanying description above describes variousvirtualized components in an example virtual network. As describedabove, the virtual network is built on the underlying physical orsubstrate network. FIG. 2 depicts a simplified architectural diagram ofthe physical components in the physical network within CSPI 200 thatprovide the underlay for the virtual network according to certainembodiments. As shown, CSPI 200 provides a distributed environmentcomprising components and resources (e.g., compute, memory, andnetworking resources) provided by a cloud service provider (CSP). Thesecomponents and resources are used to provide cloud services (e.g., IaaSservices) to subscribing customers, i.e., customers that have subscribedto one or more services provided by the CSP. Based upon the servicessubscribed to by a customer, a subset of resources (e.g., compute,memory, and networking resources) of CSPI 200 are provisioned for thecustomer. Customers can then build their own cloud-based (i.e.,CSPI-hosted) customizable and private virtual networks using physicalcompute, memory, and networking resources provided by CSPI 200. Aspreviously indicated, these customer networks are referred to as virtualcloud networks (VCNs). A customer can deploy one or more customerresources, such as compute instances, on these customer VCNs. Computeinstances can be in the form of virtual machines, bare metal instances,and the like. CSPI 200 provides infrastructure and a set ofcomplementary cloud services that enable customers to build and run awide range of applications and services in a highly available hostedenvironment.

In the example embodiment depicted in FIG. 2 , the physical componentsof CSPI 200 include one or more physical host machines or physicalservers (e.g., 202, 206, 208), network virtualization devices (NVDs)(e.g., 210, 212), top-of-rack (TOR) switches (e.g., 214, 216), and aphysical network (e.g., 218), and switches in physical network 218. Thephysical host machines or servers may host and execute various computeinstances that participate in one or more subnets of a VCN. The computeinstances may include virtual machine instances, and bare metalinstances. For example, the various compute instances depicted in FIG. 1may be hosted by the physical host machines depicted in FIG. 2 . Thevirtual machine compute instances in a VCN may be executed by one hostmachine or by multiple different host machines. The physical hostmachines may also host virtual host machines, container-based hosts orfunctions, and the like. The VNICs and VCN VR depicted in FIG. 1 may beexecuted by the NVDs depicted in FIG. 2 . The gateways depicted in FIG.1 may be executed by the host machines and/or by the NVDs depicted inFIG. 2 .

The host machines or servers may execute a hypervisor (also referred toas a virtual machine monitor or VMM) that creates and enables avirtualized environment on the host machines. The virtualization orvirtualized environment facilitates cloud-based computing. One or morecompute instances may be created, executed, and managed on a hostmachine by a hypervisor on that host machine. The hypervisor on a hostmachine enables the physical computing resources of the host machine(e.g., compute, memory, and networking resources) to be shared betweenthe various compute instances executed by the host machine.

For example, as depicted in FIG. 2 , host machines 202 and 208 executehypervisors 260 and 266, respectively. These hypervisors may beimplemented using software, firmware, or hardware, or combinationsthereof. Typically, a hypervisor is a process or a software layer thatsits on top of the host machine's operating system (OS), which in turnexecutes on the hardware processors of the host machine. The hypervisorprovides a virtualized environment by enabling the physical computingresources (e.g., processing resources such as processors/cores, memoryresources, networking resources) of the host machine to be shared amongthe various virtual machine compute instances executed by the hostmachine. For example, in FIG. 2 , hypervisor 260 may sit on top of theOS of host machine 202 and enables the computing resources (e.g.,processing, memory, and networking resources) of host machine 202 to beshared between compute instances (e.g., virtual machines) executed byhost machine 202. A virtual machine can have its own operating system(referred to as a guest operating system), which may be the same as ordifferent from the OS of the host machine. The operating system of avirtual machine executed by a host machine may be the same as ordifferent from the operating system of another virtual machine executedby the same host machine. A hypervisor thus enables multiple operatingsystems to be executed alongside each other while sharing the samecomputing resources of the host machine. The host machines depicted inFIG. 2 may have the same or different types of hypervisors.

A compute instance can be a virtual machine instance or a bare metalinstance. In FIG. 2 , compute instances 268 on host machine 202 and 274on host machine 208 are examples of virtual machine instances. Hostmachine 206 is an example of a bare metal instance that is provided to acustomer.

In certain instances, an entire host machine may be provisioned to asingle customer, and all of the one or more compute instances (eithervirtual machines or bare metal instance) hosted by that host machinebelong to that same customer. In other instances, a host machine may beshared between multiple customers (i.e., multiple tenants). In such amulti-tenancy scenario, a host machine may host virtual machine computeinstances belonging to different customers. These compute instances maybe members of different VCNs of different customers. In certainembodiments, a bare metal compute instance is hosted by a bare metalserver without a hypervisor. When a bare metal compute instance isprovisioned, a single customer or tenant maintains control of thephysical CPU, memory, and network interfaces of the host machine hostingthe bare metal instance and the host machine is not shared with othercustomers or tenants.

As previously described, each compute instance that is part of a VCN isassociated with a VNIC that enables the compute instance to become amember of a subnet of the VCN. The VNIC associated with a computeinstance facilitates the communication of packets or frames to and fromthe compute instance. A VNIC is associated with a compute instance whenthe compute instance is created. In certain embodiments, for a computeinstance executed by a host machine, the VNIC associated with thatcompute instance is executed by an NVD connected to the host machine.For example, in FIG. 2 , host machine 202 executes a virtual machinecompute instance 268 that is associated with VNIC 276, and VNIC 276 isexecuted by NVD 210 connected to host machine 202. As another example,bare metal instance 272 hosted by host machine 206 is associated withVNIC 280 that is executed by NVD 212 connected to host machine 206. Asyet another example, VNIC 284 is associated with compute instance 274executed by host machine 208, and VNIC 284 is executed by NVD 212connected to host machine 208.

For compute instances hosted by a host machine, an NVD connected to thathost machine also executes VCN VRs corresponding to VCNs of which thecompute instances are members. For example, in the embodiment depictedin FIG. 2 , NVD 210 executes VCN VR 277 corresponding to the VCN ofwhich compute instance 268 is a member. NVD 212 may also execute one ormore VCN VRs 283 corresponding to VCNs corresponding to the computeinstances hosted by host machines 206 and 208.

A host machine may include one or more network interface cards (NIC)that enable the host machine to be connected to other devices. A NIC ona host machine may provide one or more ports (or interfaces) that enablethe host machine to be communicatively connected to another device. Forexample, a host machine may be connected to an NVD using one or moreports (or interfaces) provided on the host machine and on the NVD. Ahost machine may also be connected to other devices such as another hostmachine.

For example, in FIG. 2 , host machine 202 is connected to NVD 210 usinglink 220 that extends between a port 234 provided by a NIC 232 of hostmachine 202 and between a port 236 of NVD 210. Host machine 206 isconnected to NVD 212 using link 224 that extends between a port 246provided by a NIC 244 of host machine 206 and between a port 248 of NVD212. Host machine 208 is connected to NVD 212 using link 226 thatextends between a port 252 provided by a NIC 250 of host machine 208 andbetween a port 254 of NVD 212.

The NVDs are in turn connected via communication links totop-of-the-rack (TOR) switches, which are connected to physical network218 (also referred to as the switch fabric). In certain embodiments, thelinks between a host machine and an NVD, and between an NVD and a TORswitch are Ethernet links. For example, in FIG. 2 , NVDs 210 and 212 areconnected to TOR switches 214 and 216, respectively, using links 228 and230. In certain embodiments, the links 220, 224, 226, 228, and 230 areEthernet links. The collection of host machines and NVDs that areconnected to a TOR is sometimes referred to as a rack.

Physical network 218 provides a communication fabric that enables TORswitches to communicate with each other. Physical network 218 can be amulti-tiered network. In certain implementations, physical network 218is a multi-tiered Clos network of switches, with TOR switches 214 and216 representing the leaf level nodes of the multi-tiered and multi-nodephysical switching network 218. Different Clos network configurationsare possible including but not limited to a 2-tier network, a 3-tiernetwork, a 4-tier network, a 5-tier network, and in general a “n”-tierednetwork. An example of a Clos network is depicted in FIG. 5 anddescribed below.

Various different connection configurations are possible between hostmachines and NVDs such as one-to-one configuration, many-to-oneconfiguration, one-to-many configuration, and others. In a one-to-oneconfiguration implementation, each host machine is connected to its ownseparate NVD. For example, in FIG. 2 , host machine 202 is connected toNVD 210 via NIC 232 of host machine 202. In a many-to-one configuration,multiple host machines are connected to one NVD. For example, in FIG. 2, host machines 206 and 208 are connected to the same NVD 212 via NICs244 and 250, respectively.

In a one-to-many configuration, one host machine is connected tomultiple NVDs. FIG. 3 shows an example within CSPI 300 where a hostmachine is connected to multiple NVDs. As shown in FIG. 3 , host machine302 comprises a network interface card (NIC) 304 that includes multipleports 306 and 308. Host machine 300 is connected to a first NVD 310 viaport 306 and link 320, and connected to a second NVD 312 via port 308and link 322. Ports 306 and 308 may be Ethernet ports and the links 320and 322 between host machine 302 and NVDs 310 and 312 may be Ethernetlinks. NVD 310 is in turn connected to a first TOR switch 314 and NVD312 is connected to a second TOR switch 316. The links between NVDs 310and 312, and TOR switches 314 and 316 may be Ethernet links. TORswitches 314 and 316 represent the Tier-0 switching devices inmulti-tiered physical network 318.

The arrangement depicted in FIG. 3 provides two separate physicalnetwork paths to and from physical switch network 318 to host machine302: a first path traversing TOR switch 314 to NVD 310 to host machine302, and a second path traversing TOR switch 316 to NVD 312 to hostmachine 302. The separate paths provide for enhanced availability(referred to as high availability) of host machine 302. If there areproblems in one of the paths (e.g., a link in one of the paths goesdown) or devices (e.g., a particular NVD is not functioning), then theother path may be used for communications to/from host machine 302.

In the configuration depicted in FIG. 3 , the host machine is connectedto two different NVDs using two different ports provided by a NIC of thehost machine. In other embodiments, a host machine may include multipleNICs that enable connectivity of the host machine to multiple NVDs.

Referring back to FIG. 2 , an NVD is a physical device or component thatperforms one or more network and/or storage virtualization functions. AnNVD may be any device with one or more processing units (e.g., CPUs,Network Processing Units (NPUs), FPGAs, packet processing pipelines,etc.), memory including cache, and ports. The various virtualizationfunctions may be performed by software/firmware executed by the one ormore processing units of the NVD.

An NVD may be implemented in various different forms. For example, incertain embodiments, an NVD is implemented as an interface card referredto as a smartNIC or an intelligent NIC with an embedded processoronboard. A smartNIC is a separate device from the NICs on the hostmachines. In FIG. 2 , the NVDs 210 and 212 may be implemented assmartNICs that are connected to host machines 202, and host machines 206and 208, respectively.

A smartNIC is however just one example of an NVD implementation. Variousother implementations are possible. For example, in some otherimplementations, an NVD or one or more functions performed by the NVDmay be incorporated into or performed by one or more host machines, oneor more TOR switches, and other components of CSPI 200. For example, anNVD may be embodied in a host machine where the functions performed byan NVD are performed by the host machine. As another example, an NVD maybe part of a TOR switch or a TOR switch may be configured to performfunctions performed by an NVD that enables the TOR switch to performvarious complex packet transformations that are used for a public cloud.A TOR that performs the functions of an NVD is sometimes referred to asa smart TOR. In yet other implementations, where virtual machines (VMs)instances, but not bare metal (BM) instances, are offered to customers,functions performed by an NVD may be implemented inside a hypervisor ofthe host machine. In some other implementations, some of the functionsof the NVD may be offloaded to a centralized service running on a fleetof host machines.

In certain embodiments, such as when implemented as a smartNIC as shownin FIG. 2 , an NVD may comprise multiple physical ports that enable itto be connected to one or more host machines and to one or more TORswitches. A port on an NVD can be classified as a host-facing port (alsoreferred to as a “south port”) or a network-facing or TOR-facing port(also referred to as a “north port”). A host-facing port of an NVD is aport that is used to connect the NVD to a host machine. Examples ofhost-facing ports in FIG. 2 include port 236 on NVD 210, and ports 248and 254 on NVD 212. A network-facing port of an NVD is a port that isused to connect the NVD to a TOR switch. Examples of network-facingports in FIG. 2 include port 256 on NVD 210, and port 258 on NVD 212. Asshown in FIG. 2 , NVD 210 is connected to TOR switch 214 using link 228that extends from port 256 of NVD 210 to the TOR switch 214. Likewise,NVD 212 is connected to TOR switch 216 using link 230 that extends fromport 258 of NVD 212 to the TOR switch 216.

An NVD receives packets and frames from a host machine (e.g., packetsand frames generated by a compute instance hosted by the host machine)via a host-facing port and, after performing the necessary packetprocessing, may forward the packets and frames to a TOR switch via anetwork-facing port of the NVD. An NVD may receive packets and framesfrom a TOR switch via a network-facing port of the NVD and, afterperforming the necessary packet processing, may forward the packets andframes to a host machine via a host-facing port of the NVD.

In certain embodiments, there may be multiple ports and associated linksbetween an NVD and a TOR switch. These ports and links may be aggregatedto form a link aggregator group of multiple ports or links (referred toas a LAG). Link aggregation allows multiple physical links between twoend-points (e.g., between an NVD and a TOR switch) to be treated as asingle logical link. All the physical links in a given LAG may operatein full-duplex mode at the same speed. LAGs help increase the bandwidthand reliability of the connection between two endpoints. If one of thephysical links in the LAG goes down, traffic is dynamically andtransparently reassigned to one of the other physical links in the LAG.The aggregated physical links deliver higher bandwidth than eachindividual link. The multiple ports associated with a LAG are treated asa single logical port. Traffic can be load-balanced across the multiplephysical links of a LAG. One or more LAGs may be configured between twoendpoints. The two endpoints may be between an NVD and a TOR switch,between a host machine and an NVD, and the like.

An NVD implements or performs network virtualization functions. Thesefunctions are performed by software/firmware executed by the NVD.Examples of network virtualization functions include without limitation:packet encapsulation and de-capsulation functions; functions forcreating a VCN network; functions for implementing network policies suchas VCN security list (firewall) functionality; functions that facilitatethe routing and forwarding of packets to and from compute instances in aVCN; and the like. In certain embodiments, upon receiving a packet, anNVD is configured to execute a packet processing pipeline for processingthe packet and determining how the packet is to be forwarded or routed.As part of this packet processing pipeline, the NVD may execute one ormore virtual functions associated with the overlay network such asexecuting VNICs associated with compute instances in the VCN, executinga Virtual Router (VR) associated with the VCN, the encapsulation anddecapsulation of packets to facilitate forwarding or routing in thevirtual network, execution of certain gateways (e.g., the Local PeeringGateway), the implementation of Security Lists, Network Security Groups,network address translation (NAT) functionality (e.g., the translationof Public IP to Private IP on a host by host basis), throttlingfunctions, and other functions.

In certain embodiments, the packet processing data path in an NVD maycomprise multiple packet pipelines, each composed of a series of packettransformation stages. In certain implementations, upon receiving apacket, the packet is parsed and classified to a single pipeline. Thepacket is then processed in a linear fashion, one stage after another,until the packet is either dropped or sent out over an interface of theNVD. These stages provide basic functional packet processing buildingblocks (e.g., validating headers, enforcing throttle, inserting newLayer-2 headers, enforcing L4 firewall, VCN encapsulation/decapsulation,etc.) so that new pipelines can be constructed by composing existingstages, and new functionality can be added by creating new stages andinserting them into existing pipelines.

An NVD may perform both control plane and data plane functionscorresponding to a control plane and a data plane of a VCN. Examples ofa VCN Control Plane are also depicted in FIGS. 11, 12, 13, and 14 (seereferences 1116, 1216, 1316, and 1416) and described below. Examples ofa VCN Data Plane are depicted in FIGS. 11, 12, 13, and 14 (seereferences 1118, 1218, 1318, and 1418) and described below. The controlplane functions include functions used for configuring a network (e.g.,setting up routes and route tables, configuring VNICs, etc.) thatcontrols how data is to be forwarded. In certain embodiments, a VCNControl Plane is provided that computes all the overlay-to-substratemappings centrally and publishes them to the NVDs and to the virtualnetwork edge devices such as various gateways such as the DRG, the SGW,the IGW, etc. Firewall rules may also be published using the samemechanism. In certain embodiments, an NVD only gets the mappings thatare relevant for that NVD. The data plane functions include functionsfor the actual routing/forwarding of a packet based upon configurationset up using control plane. A VCN data plane is implemented byencapsulating the customer's network packets before they traverse thesubstrate network. The encapsulation/decapsulation functionality isimplemented on the NVDs. In certain embodiments, an NVD is configured tointercept all network packets in and out of host machines and performnetwork virtualization functions.

As indicated above, an NVD executes various virtualization functionsincluding VNICs and VCN VRs. An NVD may execute VNICs associated withthe compute instances hosted by one or more host machines connected tothe VNIC. For example, as depicted in FIG. 2 , NVD 210 executes thefunctionality for VNIC 276 that is associated with compute instance 268hosted by host machine 202 connected to NVD 210. As another example, NVD212 executes VNIC 280 that is associated with bare metal computeinstance 272 hosted by host machine 206, and executes VNIC 284 that isassociated with compute instance 274 hosted by host machine 208. A hostmachine may host compute instances belonging to different VCNs, whichbelong to different customers, and the NVD connected to the host machinemay execute the VNICs (i.e., execute VNICs-relate functionality)corresponding to the compute instances.

An NVD also executes VCN Virtual Routers corresponding to the VCNs ofthe compute instances. For example, in the embodiment depicted in FIG. 2, NVD 210 executes VCN VR 277 corresponding to the VCN to which computeinstance 268 belongs. NVD 212 executes one or more VCN VRs 283corresponding to one or more VCNs to which compute instances hosted byhost machines 206 and 208 belong. In certain embodiments, the VCN VRcorresponding to that VCN is executed by all the NVDs connected to hostmachines that host at least one compute instance belonging to that VCN.If a host machine hosts compute instances belonging to different VCNs,an NVD connected to that host machine may execute VCN VRs correspondingto those different VCNs.

In addition to VNICs and VCN VRs, an NVD may execute various software(e.g., daemons) and include one or more hardware components thatfacilitate the various network virtualization functions performed by theNVD. For purposes of simplicity, these various components are groupedtogether as “packet processing components” shown in FIG. 2 . Forexample, NVD 210 comprises packet processing components 286 and NVD 212comprises packet processing components 288. For example, the packetprocessing components for an NVD may include a packet processor that isconfigured to interact with the NVD's ports and hardware interfaces tomonitor all packets received by and communicated using the NVD and storenetwork information. The network information may, for example, includenetwork flow information identifying different network flows handled bythe NVD and per flow information (e.g., per flow statistics). In certainembodiments, network flows information may be stored on a per VNICbasis. The packet processor may perform packet-by-packet manipulationsas well as implement stateful NAT and L4 firewall (FW). As anotherexample, the packet processing components may include a replicationagent that is configured to replicate information stored by the NVD toone or more different replication target stores. As yet another example,the packet processing components may include a logging agent that isconfigured to perform logging functions for the NVD. The packetprocessing components may also include software for monitoring theperformance and health of the NVD and, also possibly of monitoring thestate and health of other components connected to the NVD.

FIG. 1 shows the components of an example virtual or overlay networkincluding a VCN, subnets within the VCN, compute instances deployed onsubnets, VNICs associated with the compute instances, a VR for a VCN,and a set of gateways configured for the VCN. The overlay componentsdepicted in FIG. 1 may be executed or hosted by one or more of thephysical components depicted in FIG. 2 . For example, the computeinstances in a VCN may be executed or hosted by one or more hostmachines depicted in FIG. 2 . For a compute instance hosted by a hostmachine, the VNIC associated with that compute instance is typicallyexecuted by an NVD connected to that host machine (i.e., the VNICfunctionality is provided by the NVD connected to that host machine).The VCN VR function for a VCN is executed by all the NVDs that areconnected to host machines hosting or executing the compute instancesthat are part of that VCN. The gateways associated with a VCN may beexecuted by one or more different types of NVDs. For example, certaingateways may be executed by smartNICs, while others may be executed byone or more host machines or other implementations of NVDs.

As described above, a compute instance in a customer VCN may communicatewith various different endpoints, where the endpoints can be within thesame subnet as the source compute instance, in a different subnet butwithin the same VCN as the source compute instance, or with an endpointthat is outside the VCN of the source compute instance. Thesecommunications are facilitated using VNICs associated with the computeinstances, the VCN VRs, and the gateways associated with the VCNs.

For communications between two compute instances on the same subnet in aVCN, the communication is facilitated using VNICs associated with thesource and destination compute instances. The source and destinationcompute instances may be hosted by the same host machine or by differenthost machines. A packet originating from a source compute instance maybe forwarded from a host machine hosting the source compute instance toan NVD connected to that host machine. On the NVD, the packet isprocessed using a packet processing pipeline, which can includeexecution of the VNIC associated with the source compute instance. Sincethe destination endpoint for the packet is within the same subnet,execution of the VNIC associated with the source compute instanceresults in the packet being forwarded to an NVD executing the VNICassociated with the destination compute instance, which then processesand forwards the packet to the destination compute instance. The VNICsassociated with the source and destination compute instances may beexecuted on the same NVD (e.g., when both the source and destinationcompute instances are hosted by the same host machine) or on differentNVDs (e.g., when the source and destination compute instances are hostedby different host machines connected to different NVDs). The VNICs mayuse routing/forwarding tables stored by the NVD to determine the nexthop for the packet.

For a packet to be communicated from a compute instance in a subnet toan endpoint in a different subnet in the same VCN, the packetoriginating from the source compute instance is communicated from thehost machine hosting the source compute instance to the NVD connected tothat host machine. On the NVD, the packet is processed using a packetprocessing pipeline, which can include execution of one or more VNICs,and the VR associated with the VCN. For example, as part of the packetprocessing pipeline, the NVD executes or invokes functionalitycorresponding to the VNIC (also referred to as executes the VNIC)associated with source compute instance. The functionality performed bythe VNIC may include looking at the VLAN tag on the packet. Since thepacket's destination is outside the subnet, the VCN VR functionality isnext invoked and executed by the NVD. The VCN VR then routes the packetto the NVD executing the VNIC associated with the destination computeinstance. The VNIC associated with the destination compute instance thenprocesses the packet and forwards the packet to the destination computeinstance. The VNICs associated with the source and destination computeinstances may be executed on the same NVD (e.g., when both the sourceand destination compute instances are hosted by the same host machine)or on different NVDs (e.g., when the source and destination computeinstances are hosted by different host machines connected to differentNVDs).

If the destination for the packet is outside the VCN of the sourcecompute instance, then the packet originating from the source computeinstance is communicated from the host machine hosting the sourcecompute instance to the NVD connected to that host machine. The NVDexecutes the VNIC associated with the source compute instance. Since thedestination end point of the packet is outside the VCN, the packet isthen processed by the VCN VR for that VCN. The NVD invokes the VCN VRfunctionality, which may result in the packet being forwarded to an NVDexecuting the appropriate gateway associated with the VCN. For example,if the destination is an endpoint within the customer's on-premisenetwork, then the packet may be forwarded by the VCN VR to the NVDexecuting the DRG gateway configured for the VCN. The VCN VR may beexecuted on the same NVD as the NVD executing the VNIC associated withthe source compute instance or by a different NVD. The gateway may beexecuted by an NVD, which may be a smartNIC, a host machine, or otherNVD implementation. The packet is then processed by the gateway andforwarded to a next hop that facilitates communication of the packet toits intended destination endpoint. For example, in the embodimentdepicted in FIG. 2 , a packet originating from compute instance 268 maybe communicated from host machine 202 to NVD 210 over link 220 (usingNIC 232). On NVD 210, VNIC 276 is invoked since it is the VNICassociated with source compute instance 268. VNIC 276 is configured toexamine the encapsulated information in the packet, and determine a nexthop for forwarding the packet with the goal of facilitatingcommunication of the packet to its intended destination endpoint, andthen forward the packet to the determined next hop.

A compute instance deployed on a VCN can communicate with variousdifferent endpoints. These endpoints may include endpoints that arehosted by CSPI 200 and endpoints outside CSPI 200. Endpoints hosted byCSPI 200 may include instances in the same VCN or other VCNs, which maybe the customer's VCNs, or VCNs not belonging to the customer.Communications between endpoints hosted by CSPI 200 may be performedover physical network 218. A compute instance may also communicate withendpoints that are not hosted by CSPI 200, or are outside CSPI 200.Examples of these endpoints include endpoints within a customer'son-premise network or data center, or public endpoints accessible over apublic network such as the Internet. Communications with endpointsoutside CSPI 200 may be performed over public networks (e.g., theInternet) (not shown in FIG. 2 ) or private networks (not shown in FIG.2 ) using various communication protocols.

The architecture of CSPI 200 depicted in FIG. 2 is merely an example andis not intended to be limiting. Variations, alternatives, andmodifications are possible in alternative embodiments. For example, insome implementations, CSPI 200 may have more or fewer systems orcomponents than those shown in FIG. 2 , may combine two or more systems,or may have a different configuration or arrangement of systems. Thesystems, subsystems, and other components depicted in FIG. 2 may beimplemented in software (e.g., code, instructions, program) executed byone or more processing units (e.g., processors, cores) of the respectivesystems, using hardware, or combinations thereof. The software may bestored on a non-transitory storage medium (e.g., on a memory device).

FIG. 4 depicts connectivity between a host machine and an NVD forproviding I/O virtualization for supporting multitenancy according tocertain embodiments. As depicted in FIG. 4 , host machine 402 executes ahypervisor 404 that provides a virtualized environment. Host machine 402executes two virtual machine instances, VM1 406 belonging tocustomer/tenant #1 and VM2 408 belonging to customer/tenant #2. Hostmachine 402 comprises a physical NIC 410 that is connected to an NVD 412via link 414. Each of the compute instances is attached to a VNIC thatis executed by NVD 412. In the embodiment in FIG. 4 , VM1 406 isattached to VNIC-VM1 420 and VM2 408 is attached to VNIC-VM2 422.

As shown in FIG. 4 , NIC 410 comprises two logical NICs, logical NIC A416 and logical NIC B 418. Each virtual machine is attached to andconfigured to work with its own logical NIC. For example, VM1 406 isattached to logical NIC A 416 and VM2 408 is attached to logical NIC B418. Even though host machine 402 comprises only one physical NIC 410that is shared by the multiple tenants, due to the logical NICs, eachtenant's virtual machine believes they have their own host machine andNIC.

In certain embodiments, each logical NIC is assigned its own VLAN ID.Thus, a specific VLAN ID is assigned to logical NIC A 416 for Tenant #1and a separate VLAN ID is assigned to logical NIC B 418 for Tenant #2.When a packet is communicated from VM1 406, a tag assigned to Tenant #1is attached to the packet by the hypervisor and the packet is thencommunicated from host machine 402 to NVD 412 over link 414. In asimilar manner, when a packet is communicated from VM2 408, a tagassigned to Tenant #2 is attached to the packet by the hypervisor andthe packet is then communicated from host machine 402 to NVD 412 overlink 414. Accordingly, a packet 424 communicated from host machine 402to NVD 412 has an associated tag 426 that identifies a specific tenantand associated VM. On the NVD, for a packet 424 received from hostmachine 402, the tag 426 associated with the packet is used to determinewhether the packet is to be processed by VNIC-VM1 420 or by VNIC-VM2422. The packet is then processed by the corresponding VNIC. Theconfiguration depicted in FIG. 4 enables each tenant's compute instanceto believe that they own their own host machine and NIC. The setupdepicted in FIG. 4 provides for I/O virtualization for supportingmulti-tenancy.

FIG. 5 depicts a simplified block diagram of a physical network 500according to certain embodiments. The embodiment depicted in FIG. 5 isstructured as a Clos network. A Clos network is a particular type ofnetwork topology designed to provide connection redundancy whilemaintaining high bisection bandwidth and maximum resource utilization. AClos network is a type of non-blocking, multistage or multi-tieredswitching network, where the number of stages or tiers can be two,three, four, five, etc. The embodiment depicted in FIG. 5 is a 3-tierednetwork comprising tiers 1, 2, and 3. The TOR switches 504 representTier-0 switches in the Clos network. One or more NVDs are connected tothe TOR switches. Tier-0 switches are also referred to as edge devicesof the physical network. The Tier-0 switches are connected to Tier-1switches, which are also referred to as leaf switches. In the embodimentdepicted in FIG. 5 , a set of “n” Tier-0 TOR switches are connected to aset of “n” Tier-1 switches and together form a pod. Each Tier-0 switchin a pod is interconnected to all the Tier-1 switches in the pod, butthere is no connectivity of switches between pods. In certainimplementations, two pods are referred to as a block. Each block isserved by or connected to a set of “n” Tier-2 switches (sometimesreferred to as spine switches). There can be several blocks in thephysical network topology. The Tier-2 switches are in turn connected to“n” Tier-3 switches (sometimes referred to as super-spine switches).Communication of packets over physical network 500 is typicallyperformed using one or more Layer-3 communication protocols. Typically,all the layers of the physical network, except for the TORs layer aren-ways redundant thus allowing for high availability. Policies may bespecified for pods and blocks to control the visibility of switches toeach other in the physical network so as to enable scaling of thephysical network.

A feature of a Clos network is that the maximum hop count to reach fromone Tier-0 switch to another Tier-0 switch (or from an NVD connected toa Tier-0-switch to another NVD connected to a Tier-0 switch) is fixed.For example, in a 3-Tiered Clos network at most seven hops are neededfor a packet to reach from one NVD to another NVD, where the source andtarget NVDs are connected to the leaf tier of the Clos network.Likewise, in a 4-tiered Clos network, at most nine hops are needed for apacket to reach from one NVD to another NVD, where the source and targetNVDs are connected to the leaf tier of the Clos network. Thus, a Closnetwork architecture maintains consistent latency throughout thenetwork, which is important for communication within and between datacenters. A Clos topology scales horizontally and is cost effective. Thebandwidth/throughput capacity of the network can be easily increased byadding more switches at the various tiers (e.g., more leaf and spineswitches) and by increasing the number of links between the switches atadjacent tiers.

In certain embodiments, each resource within CSPI is assigned a uniqueidentifier called a Cloud Identifier (CID). This identifier is includedas part of the resource's information and can be used to manage theresource, for example, via a Console or through APIs. An example syntaxfor a CID is:

ocid1.<RESOURCE TYPE>.<REALM>.[REGION][.FUTURE USE].<UNIQUE ID>

-   -   where,    -   ocid1: The literal string indicating the version of the CID;    -   resource type: The type of resource (for example, instance,        volume, VCN, subnet, user, group, and so on);    -   realm: The realm the resource is in. Example values are “c1” for        the commercial realm, “c2” for the Government Cloud realm, or        “c3” for the Federal Government Cloud realm, etc. Each realm may        have its own domain name;    -   region: The region the resource is in. If the region is not        applicable to the resource, this part might be blank;    -   future use: Reserved for future use.    -   unique ID: The unique portion of the ID. The format may vary        depending on the type of resource or service.        Network Bonding and Automated Failover

A compute instance or other resources hosted on a CSPI may beaccessible, and may access other computer instances or devices via anNVD such as a SmartNIC. The NVD may contain a VNIC assigned to thecompute instance. The VNIC forms a virtual port to the VCN for thecompute instance. However, in the event that this NVD fails orcommunication with the NVD is interrupted, the ability of the computeinstance to communicate with other compute instances or devices on theVCN is impaired, and specifically is stopped. Further, it can be verydifficult to quickly detect the failure of this NVD and even morechallenging to quickly failover routing and communications to anotherNVD. This can result in interruptions in processing and/or the inabilityto access resources and services contained in a VCN.

For example, Cloud Overlay Networks are virtualized and implemented ontop of an Layer-3 underlying physical network. Network Port bonding is aLayer-2 network concept and relies on physical link state of the portsto change the active/passive interface roles based on failures ofnetwork switches, cables, NIC interfaces. But these physical Links willremain active even if there are upstream L3 network path failuresupstream and hence needs a different approach to provide similarfunctionality on the L3 networks.

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to the forming of a networkpath bond to thereby create bonded network paths connecting the computeinstance to the VCN. Network bonding provides an Ethernet Link bondingsolution over Overlay Cloud Layer-2 or Layer-3 networks built over aLayer-3 physical (underlay) network.

Network bonding on a host machine allows the kernel to present a singlelogical interface for two physical connections to two separate physicalnetwork device (switches or routers). Each of these connections can havea network path in the overlaid virtual network. For the normal course ofoperation, only one of these two network paths is used for forwardingand receiving the traffic. Specifically, a hypervisor can be used todetect failures at a media link interface, to detect the failure anactive network path, and to failover to the backup network path, alsoreferred to herein as standby network path. This network path statedetection and failure is done completely transparent of the VMs andapplication layer services. This provides High Availability without theknowledge or participation of the customer VM. These bonding techniqueshelp to reduce the number of single points of failure.

This bond/bonds/physical bond can, in some embodiments, connect a singlecompute instance to a VCN, and in some embodiments, can connect aplurality of compute instances to one or several VCNs. The creating ofthis bond can include, for example instance, identifying a plurality ofNVDs via which the computer instance will access the VCN. A set of VNICscan be formed, the set of VNICs having one VNIC on each of the pluralityof NVDs. These VNICs can, in some embodiments, be MAC learning VNICs,which can learn one or several MAC address through communications. Insome embodiments, the VNICs can learn in MAC address of the computeinstance to which they are coupled.

An IP address of the compute instance can be applied to the VNICs, suchthat each of the VNICs has the same applied IP address. The combinationof an NVD and a VNIC having the applied IP address of a compute instancecan form a network path for that compute instance. By creating a set ofVNICs having the applied IP address of a compute instance, the setincluding one VNIC on each of a set of NVDs, a plurality of networkpaths coupled with the compute instance are formed. One of these networkpaths can be designated as an active network path, which designation caninclude the mapping of the applied IP address, which applied IP addressis an overlay (aka logical) IP address, onto the physical IP address ofthe NVD underlaying that VNIC. This mapping can be performed in thecontrol plane.

The health of the active network path can be monitored. In the eventthat the active network path fails, one of the other network paths canbe automatically designate as the new, active network path. This caninclude remapping of the applied IP address of the VNIC in the NVD fordesignation as the new active network path onto the physical IP addressof the NVD underlaying that VNIC. This mapping can be updated in thecontrol plane, and the completion of this remapping can result in theautomatic failover from the previous active network path to the newactive network path. In embodiments disclosed herein, this failover canoccur transparently to a client administrator.

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to the creation of a monitoringbond, also referred to herein as a “side channel bond.” The monitoringbond can connect the NVDs of the bond to a monitoring application, alsoreferred to herein as a “monitoring daemon” or as a “monitoring agent.”The monitoring bond checks the health of the network periodically bychecking the availability of VR on NVDs. If the VR on an active networkpath is not reachable the monitoring bond transparently fails over to astandby NVD path which becomes a new active network path.

With reference now to FIG. 6 , a schematic illustration of oneembodiment of a system 600 for network path bonding is shown. The system600 can include a host machine 602 that can include a plurality of ports604, and specifically, a first port 604-A in the second port 604-B. Thehost machine 602 can include one or several compute instances 606 and ahypervisor 608, also referred to herein as VMM 608. In some embodiments,a compute instance 606 can comprise a virtual machine (“VM”).

In some embodiments, the compute instance can be connected to a service607. Service 607 can comprise, for example, a device, a network, avirtual network, a database, a memory, or the like. In some embodiments,service 607 can be accessed by one or several users via, for example,the compute instance 606.

The one or several compute instances 606 can be connected to a networksuch as VCN 609 via bond 610 coupling to the ports 604, NVDs 612, andswitches 614, which can be Top of Rack (ToR) switches. In someembodiments, the bond 610 can comprise a L3 bond. In some embodiments,the multiple network paths between the VM 606 and the VCN 609 providefor high and/or robust availability to the service 607 via the VM 606.This high availability as achieved via the architecture and methodsdisclosed herein can decrease downtime in the event that one of thenetwork paths fails and/or performs below some threshold level.

As seen, a monitoring agent 616 connects to the ports 600 for and theNVDs 612 via the hypervisor 608 and a monitoring bond 618. Specifically,the monitoring bond 618 can communicate with the network paths and/orwith the NVDs 612, and can provide updates to the monitoring agent 616based on these communications.

Specifically, the monitoring bond 618 can monitor the health of networkpaths such as, for example, first network path 620 and second networkpath 622. This can include performing a health-check via a communicationto a NVD of a network path and/or to a TOR connected to the NVD of anetwork path. In some embodiments, this communication can be sent to,for example, a virtual router within the NVD 612 of a network path, orwithin the TOR connected to the NVD of a network path. In someembodiments, as a single NVD, and thus its single virtual router, can beassociated with a plurality of network paths, or in other words,multiple VNICs can be active on that single NVD, the communication withthat virtual router can provide information regarding the health of allof those network paths. In some embodiments, this communication canautomatically triggers a response. This communication can comprise, forexample, an ARping that can include by sending one or several link layerframes using the Address Resolution Protocol (“ARP”) request methodaddressed to the virtual router. Based on whether a response to theARping is received from the virtual router and/or based on an attributeof the received response to the ARping from the virtual router. Thehealth-check could also be an ICMP ping or even a higher layerapplication health-check.

In some embodiments, the monitoring of the health of the network pathsoverlaid on a connection implicitly includes monitoring of the health ofthat physical connection. For example, if the physical connection, isdown, the NVD and/or TOR will not receive the communication and/or willnot send a response to the communication. Thus, in the event that thephysical connection of the network path is down, the virtual routerassociated with one or several network paths will likewise be down, andwill be identified as unhealthy.

Based on information received from the monitoring bond 618, themonitoring agent 616 can periodically check the health of the networkpath by checking the availability of VR on NVDs to determine when tofailover from an active network path to a standby network path, alsoreferred to herein as an inactive network path. Specifically, monitoringbond 618 can provide information to the monitoring agent 616, whichinformation can be used by the monitoring agent 616 to determine when tofailover. In some embodiments, for example, the monitoring agent 616 canfailover and/or trigger failover when one of the network paths isfailed, and in some embodiments, the monitoring agent 606 can failoverand/or trigger failover when the network overlaying one or several ofthe network paths is performing below a desired level, such as, forexample, below a desired bitrate.

In the embodiment of FIG. 6 , the system 600 includes a first networkpath 620 extending from the bond 610 through the second port 604-B, andthe second NVD 612-B. In some embodiments, this first network path 620can include the second TOR 614-B. As seen in FIG. 6 , this first networkpath 620 is designated as active.

As further seen in FIG. 6 , the system includes a second network path622 extending from the bond 610 through the first port 604-A, and thefirst NVD 612-A. In some embodiments, this second network path 622 caninclude the first TOR 614-A. As seen in FIG. 6 , this second networkpath 622 is designated as standby.

With reference now to FIG. 7 , a schematic illustration of anotherembodiment of a system 700 for network path bonding is shown. Like thesystem 600, the system 700 can include a host machine 602 comprisingports 604. The host machine 602 can generate and/or include one orseveral compute instances 606 and a hypervisor 608. As seen in FIG. 7 ,these compute instances 606 can include a first VM 606 through an Nth VM606. In some embodiments, each of these VMs 606 can be connected to aservice 607. In some embodiments, this can include multiple VMs 606connecting to a single service 607, or multiple VMs one or several ofeach connecting to one of several services 607. Thus, for example, oneor more VMs 606 could connect to a first service 607 and one or severalVMs could connect with another service 607 up to, for example, an Nthservice 607. In some embodiments, this service 607 can, and as depictedin FIG. 7 , comprise a customer VCN.

The compute instance(s) 606 can be coupled via a bond 610 and a bridge613 to NVDs 612. The bond 610 can take multiple interfaces and/ornetwork paths and have them appear as a single, virtual interface. Insome embodiments, a single bond 610 can connect multiple computeinstances 606 and/or multiple services 607 to NVDs 612. In someembodiments, a single bridge 613 can connect multiple compute instances606 and/or multiple services 607 to NVDs 612, and in some embodiments,each compute instance 606 and/or service 607 can connect via a uniquebridge 613 to a bond, which can be shared with multiple computeinstances 616 and/or services 607 to connect to NVDs 612. The bond 610and bridge 613 can be embodied, in some embodiments, in software, andcan, in some embodiments, be located in the hypervisor kernel.

A monitoring bond 618 can couple a monitoring agent 616 to ports 604 andto NVDs 612. In system 700, the monitoring agent 616 and the monitoringbond 618 are located inside of the hypervisor 608. The monitoring agent616 and the monitoring bond 618 can be embodied, in some embodiments, insoftware, and can, in some embodiments, be located in the hypervisorkernel.

As depicted in FIG. 7 , each NVD 612 can include a plurality of VNICs702. In some embodiments, the creation of the bond 610 can includegenerating a set of VNICs. Each VNIC in this set of VNICs can be locatedon an NVD 612 such that each NVD 612 contains a unique VNIC 702. Inembodiments in which the compute instance 606 is connected to a pair ofNVDs 612, as shown in FIG. 7 , the creation of the set of VNICs caninclude the creation of a pair of VNICs 702 including a first VNIC(labelled as VNIC4) on the first NVD 612-A and a second VNIC (labelledas VNIC3) on the second NVD 612-B.

In some embodiments in which multiple VMs 606 and/or services 607 sharea bond 610, then the each of the NVDs 612 can include one or severalVNICs for each of the multiple VMs 606 and/or services 607. Thesemultiple compute instances 606 can be located on the same host machine602, which can be a physical server, or can be located on different hostmachines 602. In some embodiments, a single VM 606 and/or service 607may include multiple simultaneously active IP addresses, and thus canhave multiple VNICs in each of the NVDs 612. In such an embodiment, eachof the multiple VNICs will have one of the multiple simultaneouslyactive IP addresses of the compute instance 606.

In some embodiments, the monitoring agent 616 can include a list of allof the VNICs 702 and/or of all of the IP addresses, which can be overlayIP addresses, of the VNICs 702 of each of the NVDs. In some embodimentsin which one of the network paths is active, all of the VNICs on the NVD702 of that network path are active. In some embodiments in whichmultiple VMs 606 and/or services 607 share a common bond 610, then theactive NVD 612 for the VMs 606 will be the same. In other words, each ofthe VMs 606 will share a common, active NVD 612. In the event that afailure of overlay network associated with the previously active networkpath is determined, the monitoring agent 616 can retrieve the list ofall VNICs and/or IP addresses affected by the failed network path andcan failover for all of the identified VNICs and/or IP addresses.

The creation of monitoring bond 618 can include generating a set ofmonitoring VNICs. Each VNIC in this set of monitoring VNICs can belocated on an NVD 612 such that each NVD 612 contains a uniquemonitoring VNIC. In some embodiments in which the compute instance 606is connected to a pair of NVDs 612, as shown in FIG. 7 , the creation ofthe set of monitoring VNICs can include the creation of a pair ofmonitoring VNICs including a first monitoring VNIC (labeled as VNIC2) onthe first NVD 612-A and a second monitoring VNIC (labeled as VNIC1) onthe second NVD 612-B. In some embodiments, the monitoring agent 616 canbe connected to a service tenancy 704, also referred to herein as aservice VCN 704.

With reference now to FIG. 8 , a flowchart illustrating one embodimentof a process 800 for creation of network path bond is shown. The process800 can be performed by all or portions of system 600 and/or system 700.In some embodiments, the process 800 can be performed and/or directed bythe hypervisor 608, and/or by one or several processors of or associatedwith the hypervisor 608. The process 800 begins at block 801 wherein oneor several compute instances, one or more of which compute instances canbe a virtual machine, are identified for bonding. In some embodiments,this identification can occur simultaneous with and/or subsequent to thecreation of a compute instance. In some embodiments, the computeinstances, which can include, for example, compute instance 606, can beidentified by the hypervisor 608.

At block 802, one of the identified compute instances is selected. Insome embodiments, the one of the identified compute instances can beselected and/or created by the hypervisor 608. At block 804 a pluralityof NVDs associated with the compute instance are identified. In someembodiments, these NVDs, for example, NVDs 612, can be physicallycoupled to the host machine 602 in which the selected compute instanceresides. In some embodiments, these NVDs can be used in creation of thebond.

At block 806 a set of VNICs are created. In some embodiments, the numberof VNICs in the set of VNICs matches the number of NVDs identified foruse in the bond. In some embodiments, the creating of the set of VNICscan include the creation of a new VNIC 702 on each of the NVDs 612identified in block 804. In some embodiments, the creation of a new VNIC702 on an NVD 612 can create a network path connecting the computeinstance with the NVD containing the new VNIC. In some embodiments, eachof these VNICs can include an IP address, a MAC address, and a VLANdesignation. In some embodiments, each of these VNICs can comprise a MAClearning VNIC, which MAC learning VNIC can automatically learn a MACaddress of the associated compute instance, and specifically the MACaddress of the physical interface of that compute instance. In someembodiments, the learning VNIC can automatically learn the MAC addressof the associated compute instance via communication with that computeinstance. Thus, these MAC learning VNICs can learn the MAC address ofthe compute instance, and specifically of the physical interface of thecompute instance to which the NVD containing the VNIC is linked.

At block 810 an IP address of the compute instance and/or associatedwith the compute instance is determined. In some embodiments, this canbe an IP address of a client VNIC located in the compute instance. Insome embodiments, this IP address associated with compute instance canbe a private IP address identifying the compute instance within the VCN.

At block 812 the IP address of the compute instance is overlaid on eachof the VNICs created in block 806. Through this overlaying, each of theVNICs created in block 806 has the IP address of the compute instanceand/or the client VNIC IP address, and thus each of the VNICs created inblock 806 shares a common IP address. This overlaying can includestoring the overlay IP address in association with the VNIC.

At block 814 each of the VNICs created in block 806 learns and/orreceives a MAC address of the compute instance. In some embodiments,this MAC address can be the MAC address provided to the compute instanceby the hypervisor 608. In some embodiments, this MAC address can be theMAC address of the a network interface of the compute instance. In someembodiments, this can result in each of the VNICs created in block 806learning and/or receiving the same MAC address. In some embodiments,this MAC address can be learned from the communications with the computeinstance, and in some embodiments, this MAC address can be learnedand/or received from a configuration file that can be, for example,stored and/or maintained by the hypervisor 608 and/or by the bond 610.

A decision step 816, it is determined if there are any additionalcompute instances for adding to the bond. In some embodiments, forexample a plurality of compute instances can be connected to the NVDsvia a single bond, and in some embodiments, a single compute instancecan be connected to the NVDs via a single bond. If it is determined thatthere are additional compute instances, then the process 800 returns toblock 802 and proceeds as outlined above to thereby add one or severalof the additional compute instances to the bond.

In some embodiments, one of the network paths is designated as an activenetwork path, or in other words, wherein one of the NVDs is designatedas active. One of the network paths, or in other words one of the NVDs,can be designated as the active network path by the hypervisor 608, andin some embodiments, by the monitoring agent 616 in the hypervisor 608.The designation of one of the networks paths as an active network pathcan be performed at any point in process 800 including as a first step.In some embodiments, for example, one of the network paths, or in otherwords, one of the NVDs can be designated as active before identificationof VMs for bonding, as currently represented in block 801, and in someembodiments, one of the NVDs can be designated as active simultaneouswith or before creations of one or several of the VMs.

In some embodiments, the designation of one of the network paths, or inother words, one of the NVDs as active can include updating mapping inthe control plane to map the overlay IP address of the compute instanceon the VNIC of the NVD in the active network path onto the physical IPaddress of that NVD. Thus, mapping in the control plane can be updatedto map the overlaid IP address onto the physical IP address of the NVD.This NVD can be in the active network path, and the overlay IP addresscan be overlay on the VNIC of the NVD. In some embodiments, this mappingcan include updating one or several routing tables. These routing tablescan, in some embodiments, be located on and/or accessible by, forexample, one or several NVDs, switches, routers, or the like.

Returning again to decision step 816, if it is determined that there areno additional compute instances, then the process 800 proceeds to block818 wherein the health of the active network path is monitored. If it isdetermined that the active network path, or in other words the networkpath fails a health-check, and/or if the active network path, or inother words the network path otherwise fails, then an automatic failoveroccurs. This can include identifying the previous active network path asinactive and designating a previous standby network path as the newactive network path. In some embodiments, this can include remapping inthe control plane of the VCN to couple the overlay IP address of thecompute instance on the VNIC of the NVD in the previous standby networkpath to the physical IP address of that NVD. In other words, this caninclude coupling the physical IP address of the NVD in the new activenetwork path to the overlay IP address, which overlay IP address isoverlaid onto the VNIC of the NVD in the new active network path. Thisremapping can include updating one or several routing tables, whichrouting tables can be located on and/or be accessible to one or severalNVDs, switches, routers, or the like.

With reference now to FIG. 9 , a flowchart illustrating one embodimentof a process 900 for creating a monitoring bond and providing automaticfailover is shown. The process 900 can be performed by all or portionsof system 600 and/or system 700. In some embodiments, the process 900can be performed by the hypervisor 608. In some embodiments, the process900 can be performed by one or several processors located in, and/orassociated with one or several components of system 600 and/or system700. The process 900 begins at block 902, wherein a service tenancy isidentified. In some embodiments, the service tenancy can comprise aadministrative virtual cloud network such as, for example, servicetenancy 704, for use in maintaining, monitoring, and/or managing one orseveral customer infrastructures like compute servers, storage servers,networking physical infrastructures, or the like.

At block 904 a monitoring bond 618 and/or monitoring daemon 616 arecreated and/or identified. The monitoring bond 618 and/or monitoringdaemon 616 can, in some embodiments, be created by the hypervisor 608.The monitoring bond 618 and/or the monitoring daemon 616 can be created,in some embodiments, within the hypervisor 608.

At block 906 the plurality of NVDs for association with a network pathbond 910 are identified. In some embodiments, the step of block 906 caninclude identifying a plurality of NVDs 702 coupled to a device, such asto the physical server 602. In some embodiments, the step of block 906can include identifying a plurality of NVDs 702 coupled to a device,such as a physical server 602 and available for incorporation into abond 610.

In some embodiments, one of the NVDs 702 can be identified and/ordesignated as active, thereby identifying and/or designating an activenetwork path. This can include determining which of the NVDs identifiedin 906 is the active NVD, and/or which network path associated with anNVD identified in block 906 is the active network path. In someembodiments, this can include associating an indicator of active statuswith the active network path, which indicator can comprise, for example,a stored value. In some embodiments, identifying and/or designating oneof the NVDs as active can likewise include identifying the others of theNVDs as inactive. In some embodiments, this can include associating anindicator of inactive status with the inactive NVD(s) and/or networkpath(s), which indicator can comprise, for example, a stored value. Theone of the NVDs 702 can be identified and/or designated as active by,for example, the monitoring agent 616, and likewise, the one or severalNVDs can be identified and/or designated as inactive by, for example,the monitoring agent 616. In some embodiments, this designation of NVDsas active or inactive can be performed as a part of the step of block906.

At block 908, a set of monitoring VNICs are created. In someembodiments, the number of monitoring VNICs in the set of monitoringVNICs matches the number of NVDs identified in block 906 and that areassociated with the network path bond. In some embodiments, the creatingof the set of monitoring VNICs can include the creation of a newmonitoring VNIC on each of the NVDs identified in block 906. In someembodiments, creating the set of monitoring VNICs can include creating aplurality of monitoring VNICs with one monitoring VNIC on each of theNVDs identified in block 906.

At block 910 an IP address for the monitoring VNICs is determined. Insome embodiments, this IP address can be received from the servicetenancy identified in block 902, and in some embodiments, this IPaddress can be determined and/or assigned by the monitoring agent 616.

At block 912 the IP address determined in block 910 is applied to themonitoring VNICs. Specifically, this can include applying the IP addressdetermined in block 910 to each of the monitoring VNICs. Thus, in someembodiments, each of the monitoring VNICs can share a common IP address.

At block 914 the health of network paths, or in other words the healthof network paths in the network path bond is monitored. In someembodiments, this specifically includes monitoring of the health ofnetworks paths traversing the active network path in the network pathbond, and in some embodiments this may include monitoring the health ofboth the active network path and of one or several standby networkpaths. This health can be monitored by the hypervisor 608, andspecifically by the monitoring agent 616. In some embodiments, themonitoring of the health of a network path can include monitoring theresponsiveness and/or availability of the virtual router in the NVD ofthat network path. The monitoring of this health (aka the health-checkor a keepalive) can be as simple as an ICMP ping, an ARPing, atraceroute or a higher layer application level health-check. In someembodiments, for example, the virtual router in the NVD of a networkpath will response to such a communication, and the receipt of aresponse to that communication can indicate that the virtual router isresponsive, and thus that the network path is healthy. This health checkcan be continuously or periodically starting at the time of the creationof the monitoring agent 616.

At block 916, the bond 610, also referred to herein as the customernetwork bond and/or bridge is created. In some embodiments, this caninclude the creation of a single bond, or the creation of multiplebonds. In some embodiments, this bond 610 can connect at least onecompute instance an a plurality of NVDs. In some embodiments, this bond610 can connect a physical server 602 to a plurality of NVDs 702 viaports 604 of the physical server 602.

At block 918, a virtual interface of the bond and/or bridge is added tothe compute instance. This virtual interface, shown in FIG. 7 as VIF1.1,VIF1.2, and VIFN.1 can provide the compute instance access to the bond610, and specifically can provide access to the NVD 702. At block 920,customer IP and/or VNIC configurations are applied. In some embodiments,this can include some or all of the steps shown in process 800 of FIG. 8. In some embodiments, the monitoring agent gathers 616 aggregates allof the IP addresses of the VNICs created on the NVDs as part of the stepof block 920, which IP addresses can be used by the monitoring agent 616during failover.

At any point during process 900, if it is determined that the activenetwork path fails a health-check, and/or if the active network pathotherwise fails, then, as indicated in block 922, an automatic failoveroccurs. In some embodiments, this failover can be performed according tosome or all of the steps of process 1000 discussed with respect to FIG.10 , below.

In some embodiments, the active network path can be identified as failedwhen the active network path no longer can communicate, in other words,can no longer send and/or receive information, and/or when theperformance of the active network path drops below a threshold level. Insome embodiments, for example, the active network path can be identifiedas failed when the virtual router does not respond to a communication.In some embodiments, this failure of the active network path isdetermined based on receipt of no response to the health check, andspecifically no response received to one or several communications tothe active network path. In some embodiments, the active network pathdrops below the threshold level when the active network pathcommunicates, including sending and/or receiving data, below a desiredbitrate. Thus, in some embodiments, this threshold can identify aminimum communication speed and/or a minimum data transmission speed.

Automatic failover can include identifying the previous active networkpath as inactive and designating a previous standby network path as thenew active network path. In some embodiments, this can include moving IPaddresses to the VNICS on the new active NVD. In some embodiments, thiscan include remapping in the control plane of the VCN to couple theoverlay IP address of the compute instance on the VNIC of the NVD in theprevious standby network path, or in other words of the NVD in the newactive network path onto the physical IP address of that NVD. Thismapping can include updating one or several routing tables, whichrouting tables can be located on and/or be accessible to one or severalNVDs, switches, routers, or the like. In some embodiments, for example,the hypervisor 608, and specifically the monitoring agent 616 candetermine that the active network path has failed a health check. Themonitoring agent 616 can, based on the failed health check, updatemapping such that a previous standby network path becomes designated asthe active network path. In some embodiments, the updating of themapping can include the monitoring agent 616 notifying the control planeof the failed health check of the network path, and the control planeupdating mapping such that the active network path is no longerdesignated as active and such that a previous standby network pathbecomes designated as the active network path.

With reference now to FIG. 10 , a flowchart illustrating one embodimentof a process 1000 for health monitoring and automatic failover is shown.The process 1000 can be performed by one or both of systems 600 and 700and/or can be wholly or partially performed by the monitoring agent 616.The process 1000 begins at block 1001, wherein a first network path isdesignated as the active network path. At block 1002 the first networkpath fails, which failure is detected as indicated in block 1004 by themonitoring agent 616 via the first network path failing a health check.In some embodiments, the monitoring agent 616 can perform thehealth-check via a communication to the NVD of a network path or to theTOR connected to the NVD of a network path, which communicationautomatically triggers a response. In some embodiments, thiscommunication can be to a virtual router that can be in the NVD or canbe in the TOR. This communication can comprise, for example, an ARpingby sending one or several link layer frames using the Address ResolutionProtocol (“ARP”) request method addressed to the virtual router. Basedon whether a response to the ARping is received from the virtual routerand/or based on an attribute of the received response to the ARping fromthe virtual router.

At block 1006 the monitoring agent 616 indicates that the first networkpath is down. At block 1008, the monitoring agent 616 sends aregistration protocol message per the overlay IP address on the secondnetwork path, which second network path was previously a standby networkpath. This can include, for example, the monitoring agent 616 sending aregistration protocol message on behalf of each overlay IP address ofVNICs associated with the previous active NVD to the previous standby,and now active NVD. In some embodiments, this registration protocolmessage can be a Gratuitous ARP (GARP) message.

At block 1010 a virtual network edge device, which virtual network edgedevice can be the NVD of the previous standby network path interceptsthe registration protocol message(s), which registration protocolmessage can be GARP message(s), and updates the control plane mapping.Thus, in some embodiments, the data plane of the virtual networkintercepts the registration protocol message(s) sent by the hypervisor608. In some embodiments, this registration protocol message(s) caninclude a message for each of the overlay IP addresses of the VNICs thatare failing over.

In some embodiments, the virtual network edge device, which can be, forexample, the NVD of the previous standby network path, which NVD can be,for example, a smartNIC, can update the virtual network control planemapping based on this intercepted registration protocol message(s). Insome embodiments, this can include updating the mapping such that theoverlay IP address is mapped onto the VNIC on the NVD of the secondnetwork path.

At block 1012 the virtual network control plane updates the virtualnetwork data plane, and specifically the other virtual network devices.In some embodiments, this can include enabling devices operating in thedata plane to affect routing of packets based on the updated mapping inthe control plane. In some embodiments this can further includedistributing information relating to the updated mapping to devicesoperating in the data plane such as, for example, one or several NVDs,switches, routers, or the like, which devices in the data plane can thenupdate the routing tables based on the updated mapping of block 1010. Insome embodiments, this update can be performed by the sending of one orseveral GARPs.

At block 1014 traffic recovers for all overlay IP address affected bythe failover, or in other words, for all overlay IP addresses of theVNICs of the previous standby network path, or in other words for alloverlay IP addresses of the VNICs of the new active network path. Atblock 1016, network path 1 recovers, and at block 1018, the monitoringagent 616 detects that network path 1, which was the previous activenetwork path, has recovered. In other words, the monitoring agent 616determines that network path 1 has passed its health check. At block1020, the monitoring agent 616 marks network path 1 as available forfailover, or in other words, identifies network path 1 as a standbynetwork path. The process 1000 continues with block 1001, but now thenew active network path is network path 2 and the new standby networkpath is network path 1.

Example Implementation

FIG. 11 is a block diagram 1100 illustrating an example pattern of anIaaS architecture, according to at least one embodiment. Serviceoperators 1102 can be communicatively coupled to a secure host tenancy1104 that can include a virtual cloud network (VCN) 1106 and a securehost subnet 1108. In some examples, the service operators 1102 may beusing one or more client computing devices, which may be portablehandheld devices (e.g., an iPhone®, cellular telephone, an iPad®,computing tablet, a personal digital assistant (PDA)) or wearabledevices (e.g., a Google Glass® head mounted display), running softwaresuch as Microsoft Windows Mobile®, and/or a variety of mobile operatingsystems such as iOS, Windows Phone, Android, BlackBerry 8, Palm OS, andthe like, and being Internet, e-mail, short message service (SMS),Blackberry®, or other communication protocol enabled. Alternatively, theclient computing devices can be general purpose personal computersincluding, by way of example, personal computers and/or laptop computersrunning various versions of Microsoft Windows®, Apple Macintosh®, and/orLinux operating systems. The client computing devices can be workstationcomputers running any of a variety of commercially-available UNIX® orUNIX-like operating systems, including without limitation the variety ofGNU/Linux operating systems, such as for example, Google Chrome OS.Alternatively, or in addition, client computing devices may be any otherelectronic device, such as a thin-client computer, an Internet-enabledgaming system (e.g., a Microsoft Xbox gaming console with or without aKinect® gesture input device), and/or a personal messaging device,capable of communicating over a network that can access the VCN 1106and/or the Internet.

The VCN 1106 can include a local peering gateway (LPG) 1110 that can becommunicatively coupled to a secure shell (SSH) VCN 1112 via an LPG 1110contained in the SSH VCN 1112. The SSH VCN 1112 can include an SSHsubnet 1114, and the SSH VCN 1112 can be communicatively coupled to acontrol plane VCN 1116 via the LPG 1110 contained in the control planeVCN 1116. Also, the SSH VCN 1112 can be communicatively coupled to adata plane VCN 1118 via an LPG 1110. The control plane VCN 1116 and thedata plane VCN 1118 can be contained in a service tenancy 1119 that canbe owned and/or operated by the IaaS provider.

The control plane VCN 1116 can include a control plane demilitarizedzone (DMZ) tier 1120 that acts as a perimeter network (e.g., portions ofa corporate network between the corporate intranet and externalnetworks). The DMZ-based servers may have restricted responsibilitiesand help keep security breaches contained. Additionally, the DMZ tier1120 can include one or more load balancer (LB) subnet(s) 1122, acontrol plane app tier 1124 that can include app subnet(s) 1126, acontrol plane data tier 1128 that can include database (DB) subnet(s)1130 (e.g., frontend DB subnet(s) and/or backend DB subnet(s)). The LBsubnet(s) 1122 contained in the control plane DMZ tier 1120 can becommunicatively coupled to the app subnet(s) 1126 contained in thecontrol plane app tier 1124 and an Internet gateway 1134 that can becontained in the control plane VCN 1116, and the app subnet(s) 1126 canbe communicatively coupled to the DB subnet(s) 1130 contained in thecontrol plane data tier 1128 and a service gateway 1136 and a networkaddress translation (NAT) gateway 1138. The control plane VCN 1116 caninclude the service gateway 1136 and the NAT gateway 1138.

The control plane VCN 1116 can include a data plane mirror app tier 1140that can include app subnet(s) 1126. The app subnet(s) 1126 contained inthe data plane mirror app tier 1140 can include a virtual networkinterface controller (VNIC) 1142 that can execute a compute instance1144. The compute instance 1144 can communicatively couple the appsubnet(s) 1126 of the data plane mirror app tier 1140 to app subnet(s)1126 that can be contained in a data plane app tier 1146.

The data plane VCN 1118 can include the data plane app tier 1146, a dataplane DMZ tier 1148, and a data plane data tier 1150. The data plane DMZtier 1148 can include LB subnet(s) 1122 that can be communicativelycoupled to the app subnet(s) 1126 of the data plane app tier 1146 andthe Internet gateway 1134 of the data plane VCN 1118. The app subnet(s)1126 can be communicatively coupled to the service gateway 1136 of thedata plane VCN 1118 and the NAT gateway 1138 of the data plane VCN 1118.The data plane data tier 1150 can also include the DB subnet(s) 1130that can be communicatively coupled to the app subnet(s) 1126 of thedata plane app tier 1146.

The Internet gateway 1134 of the control plane VCN 1116 and of the dataplane VCN 1118 can be communicatively coupled to a metadata managementservice 1152 that can be communicatively coupled to public Internet1154. Public Internet 1154 can be communicatively coupled to the NATgateway 1138 of the control plane VCN 1116 and of the data plane VCN1118. The service gateway 1136 of the control plane VCN 1116 and of thedata plane VCN 1118 can be communicatively couple to cloud services1156.

In some examples, the service gateway 1136 of the control plane VCN 1116or of the data plan VCN 1118 can make application programming interface(API) calls to cloud services 1156 without going through public Internet1154. The API calls to cloud services 1156 from the service gateway 1136can be one-way: the service gateway 1136 can make API calls to cloudservices 1156, and cloud services 1156 can send requested data to theservice gateway 1136. But, cloud services 1156 may not initiate APIcalls to the service gateway 1136.

In some examples, the secure host tenancy 1104 can be directly connectedto the service tenancy 1119, which may be otherwise isolated. The securehost subnet 1108 can communicate with the SSH subnet 1114 through an LPG1110 that may enable two-way communication over an otherwise isolatedsystem. Connecting the secure host subnet 1108 to the SSH subnet 1114may give the secure host subnet 1108 access to other entities within theservice tenancy 1119.

The control plane VCN 1116 may allow users of the service tenancy 1119to set up or otherwise provision desired resources. Desired resourcesprovisioned in the control plane VCN 1116 may be deployed or otherwiseused in the data plane VCN 1118. In some examples, the control plane VCN1116 can be isolated from the data plane VCN 1118, and the data planemirror app tier 1140 of the control plane VCN 1116 can communicate withthe data plane app tier 1146 of the data plane VCN 1118 via VNICs 1142that can be contained in the data plane mirror app tier 1140 and thedata plane app tier 1146.

In some examples, users of the system, or customers, can make requests,for example create, read, update, or delete (CRUD) operations, throughpublic Internet 1154 that can communicate the requests to the metadatamanagement service 1152. The metadata management service 1152 cancommunicate the request to the control plane VCN 1116 through theInternet gateway 1134. The request can be received by the LB subnet(s)1122 contained in the control plane DMZ tier 1120. The LB subnet(s) 1122may determine that the request is valid, and in response to thisdetermination, the LB subnet(s) 1122 can transmit the request to appsubnet(s) 1126 contained in the control plane app tier 1124. If therequest is validated and requires a call to public Internet 1154, thecall to public Internet 1154 may be transmitted to the NAT gateway 1138that can make the call to public Internet 1154. Memory that may bedesired to be stored by the request can be stored in the DB subnet(s)1130.

In some examples, the data plane mirror app tier 1140 can facilitatedirect communication between the control plane VCN 1116 and the dataplane VCN 1118. For example, changes, updates, or other suitablemodifications to configuration may be desired to be applied to theresources contained in the data plane VCN 1118. Via a VNIC 1142, thecontrol plane VCN 1116 can directly communicate with, and can therebyexecute the changes, updates, or other suitable modifications toconfiguration to, resources contained in the data plane VCN 1118.

In some embodiments, the control plane VCN 1116 and the data plane VCN1118 can be contained in the service tenancy 1119. In this case, theuser, or the customer, of the system may not own or operate either thecontrol plane VCN 1116 or the data plane VCN 1118. Instead, the IaaSprovider may own or operate the control plane VCN 1116 and the dataplane VCN 1118, both of which may be contained in the service tenancy1119. This embodiment can enable isolation of networks that may preventusers or customers from interacting with other users', or othercustomers', resources. Also, this embodiment may allow users orcustomers of the system to store databases privately without needing torely on public Internet 1154, which may not have a desired level ofsecurity, for storage.

In other embodiments, the LB subnet(s) 1122 contained in the controlplane VCN 1116 can be configured to receive a signal from the servicegateway 1136. In this embodiment, the control plane VCN 1116 and thedata plane VCN 1118 may be configured to be called by a customer of theIaaS provider without calling public Internet 1154. Customers of theIaaS provider may desire this embodiment since database(s) that thecustomers use may be controlled by the IaaS provider and may be storedon the service tenancy 1119, which may be isolated from public Internet1154.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram 1200 illustrating another example pattern ofan IaaS architecture, according to at least one embodiment. Serviceoperators 1202 (e.g. service operators 1102 of FIG. 11 ) can becommunicatively coupled to a secure host tenancy 1204 (e.g. the securehost tenancy 1104 of FIG. 11 ) that can include a virtual cloud network(VCN) 1206 (e.g. the VCN 1106 of FIG. 11 ) and a secure host subnet 1208(e.g. the secure host subnet 1108 of FIG. 11 ). The VCN 1206 can includea local peering gateway (LPG) 1210 (e.g. the LPG 1110 of FIG. 11 ) thatcan be communicatively coupled to a secure shell (SSH) VCN 1212 (e.g.the SSH VCN 1112 of FIG. 11 ) via an LPG 1110 contained in the SSH VCN1212. The SSH VCN 1212 can include an SSH subnet 1214 (e.g. the SSHsubnet 1114 of FIG. 11 ), and the SSH VCN 1212 can be communicativelycoupled to a control plane VCN 1216 (e.g. the control plane VCN 1116 ofFIG. 11 ) via an LPG 1210 contained in the control plane VCN 1216. Thecontrol plane VCN 1216 can be contained in a service tenancy 1219 (e.g.the service tenancy 1119 of FIG. 11 ), and the data plane VCN 1218 (e.g.the data plane VCN 1118 of FIG. 11 ) can be contained in a customertenancy 1221 that may be owned or operated by users, or customers, ofthe system.

The control plane VCN 1216 can include a control plane DMZ tier 1220(e.g. the control plane DMZ tier 1120 of FIG. 11 ) that can include LBsubnet(s) 1222 (e.g. LB subnet(s) 1122 of FIG. 11 ), a control plane apptier 1224 (e.g. the control plane app tier 1124 of FIG. 11 ) that caninclude app subnet(s) 1226 (e.g. app subnet(s) 1126 of FIG. 11 ), acontrol plane data tier 1228 (e.g. the control plane data tier 1128 ofFIG. 11 ) that can include database (DB) subnet(s) 1230 (e.g. similar toDB subnet(s) 1130 of FIG. 11 ). The LB subnet(s) 1222 contained in thecontrol plane DMZ tier 1220 can be communicatively coupled to the appsubnet(s) 1226 contained in the control plane app tier 1224 and anInternet gateway 1234 (e.g. the Internet gateway 1134 of FIG. 11 ) thatcan be contained in the control plane VCN 1216, and the app subnet(s)1226 can be communicatively coupled to the DB subnet(s) 1230 containedin the control plane data tier 1228 and a service gateway 1236 (e.g. theservice gateway of FIG. 11 ) and a network address translation (NAT)gateway 1238 (e.g. the NAT gateway 1138 of FIG. 11 ). The control planeVCN 1216 can include the service gateway 1236 and the NAT gateway 1238.

The control plane VCN 1216 can include a data plane mirror app tier 1240(e.g. the data plane mirror app tier 1140 of FIG. 11 ) that can includeapp subnet(s) 1226. The app subnet(s) 1226 contained in the data planemirror app tier 1240 can include a virtual network interface controller(VNIC) 1242 (e.g. the VNIC of 1142) that can execute a compute instance1244 (e.g. similar to the compute instance 1144 of FIG. 11 ). Thecompute instance 1244 can facilitate communication between the appsubnet(s) 1226 of the data plane mirror app tier 1240 and the appsubnet(s) 1226 that can be contained in a data plane app tier 1246 (e.g.the data plane app tier 1146 of FIG. 11 ) via the VNIC 1242 contained inthe data plane mirror app tier 1240 and the VNIC 1242 contained in thedata plan app tier 1246.

The Internet gateway 1234 contained in the control plane VCN 1216 can becommunicatively coupled to a metadata management service 1252 (e.g. themetadata management service 1152 of FIG. 11 ) that can becommunicatively coupled to public Internet 1254 (e.g. public Internet1154 of FIG. 11 ). Public Internet 1254 can be communicatively coupledto the NAT gateway 1238 contained in the control plane VCN 1216. Theservice gateway 1236 contained in the control plane VCN 1216 can becommunicatively couple to cloud services 1256 (e.g. cloud services 1156of FIG. 11 ).

In some examples, the data plane VCN 1218 can be contained in thecustomer tenancy 1221. In this case, the IaaS provider may provide thecontrol plane VCN 1216 for each customer, and the IaaS provider may, foreach customer, set up a unique compute instance 1244 that is containedin the service tenancy 1219. Each compute instance 1244 may allowcommunication between the control plane VCN 1216, contained in theservice tenancy 1219, and the data plane VCN 1218 that is contained inthe customer tenancy 1221. The compute instance 1244 may allowresources, that are provisioned in the control plane VCN 1216 that iscontained in the service tenancy 1219, to be deployed or otherwise usedin the data plane VCN 1218 that is contained in the customer tenancy1221.

In other examples, the customer of the IaaS provider may have databasesthat live in the customer tenancy 1221. In this example, the controlplane VCN 1216 can include the data plane mirror app tier 1240 that caninclude app subnet(s) 1226. The data plane mirror app tier 1240 canreside in the data plane VCN 1218, but the data plane mirror app tier1240 may not live in the data plane VCN 1218. That is, the data planemirror app tier 1240 may have access to the customer tenancy 1221, butthe data plane mirror app tier 1240 may not exist in the data plane VCN1218 or be owned or operated by the customer of the IaaS provider. Thedata plane mirror app tier 1240 may be configured to make calls to thedata plane VCN 1218 but may not be configured to make calls to anyentity contained in the control plane VCN 1216. The customer may desireto deploy or otherwise use resources in the data plane VCN 1218 that areprovisioned in the control plane VCN 1216, and the data plane mirror apptier 1240 can facilitate the desired deployment, or other usage ofresources, of the customer.

In some embodiments, the customer of the IaaS provider can apply filtersto the data plane VCN 1218. In this embodiment, the customer candetermine what the data plane VCN 1218 can access, and the customer mayrestrict access to public Internet 1254 from the data plane VCN 1218.The IaaS provider may not be able to apply filters or otherwise controlaccess of the data plane VCN 1218 to any outside networks or databases.Applying filters and controls by the customer onto the data plane VCN1218, contained in the customer tenancy 1221, can help isolate the dataplane VCN 1218 from other customers and from public Internet 1254.

In some embodiments, cloud services 1256 can be called by the servicegateway 1236 to access services that may not exist on public Internet1254, on the control plane VCN 1216, or on the data plane VCN 1218. Theconnection between cloud services 1256 and the control plane VCN 1216 orthe data plane VCN 1218 may not be live or continuous. Cloud services1256 may exist on a different network owned or operated by the IaaSprovider. Cloud services 1256 may be configured to receive calls fromthe service gateway 1236 and may be configured to not receive calls frompublic Internet 1254. Some cloud services 1256 may be isolated fromother cloud services 1256, and the control plane VCN 1216 may beisolated from cloud services 1256 that may not be in the same region asthe control plane VCN 1216. For example, the control plane VCN 1216 maybe located in “Region 1,” and cloud service “Deployment 12,” may belocated in Region 1 and in “Region 2.” If a call to Deployment 11 ismade by the service gateway 1236 contained in the control plane VCN 1216located in Region 1, the call may be transmitted to Deployment 11 inRegion 1. In this example, the control plane VCN 1216, or Deployment 11in Region 1, may not be communicatively coupled to, or otherwise incommunication with, Deployment 11 in Region 2.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram 1300 illustrating another example pattern ofan IaaS architecture, according to at least one embodiment. Serviceoperators 1302 (e.g. service operators 1102 of FIG. 11 ) can becommunicatively coupled to a secure host tenancy 1304 (e.g. the securehost tenancy 1104 of FIG. 11 ) that can include a virtual cloud network(VCN) 1306 (e.g. the VCN 1106 of FIG. 11 ) and a secure host subnet 1308(e.g. the secure host subnet 1108 of FIG. 11 ). The VCN 1306 can includean LPG 1310 (e.g. the LPG 1110 of FIG. 11 ) that can be communicativelycoupled to an SSH VCN 1311 (e.g. the SSH VCN 1112 of FIG. 11 ) via anLPG 1310 contained in the SSH VCN 1312. The SSH VCN 1312 can include anSSH subnet 1314 (e.g. the SSH subnet 1114 of FIG. 11 ), and the SSH VCN1312 can be communicatively coupled to a control plane VCN 1316 (e.g.the control plane VCN 1116 of FIG. 11 ) via an LPG 1310 contained in thecontrol plane VCN 1316 and to a data plane VCN 1318 (e.g. the data plane1118 of FIG. 11 ) via an LPG 1310 contained in the data plane VCN 1318.The control plane VCN 1316 and the data plane VCN 1318 can be containedin a service tenancy 1319 (e.g. the service tenancy 1119 of FIG. 11 ).

The control plane VCN 1316 can include a control plane DMZ tier 1320(e.g. the control plane DMZ tier 1120 of FIG. 11 ) that can include loadbalancer (LB) subnet(s) 1322 (e.g. LB subnet(s) 1122 of FIG. 11 ), acontrol plane app tier 1324 (e.g. the control plane app tier 1124 ofFIG. 11 ) that can include app subnet(s) 1326 (e.g. similar to appsubnet(s) 1126 of FIG. 11 ), a control plane data tier 1328 (e.g. thecontrol plane data tier 1128 of FIG. 11 ) that can include DB subnet(s)1330. The LB subnet(s) 1322 contained in the control plane DMZ tier 1320can be communicatively coupled to the app subnet(s) 1326 contained inthe control plane app tier 1324 and to an Internet gateway 1334 (e.g.the Internet gateway 1134 of FIG. 11 ) that can be contained in thecontrol plane VCN 1316, and the app subnet(s) 1326 can becommunicatively coupled to the DB subnet(s) 1330 contained in thecontrol plane data tier 1328 and to a service gateway 1336 (e.g. theservice gateway of FIG. 11 ) and a network address translation (NAT)gateway 1338 (e.g. the NAT gateway 1138 of FIG. 11 ). The control planeVCN 1316 can include the service gateway 1336 and the NAT gateway 1338.

The data plane VCN 1318 can include a data plane app tier 1346 (e.g. thedata plane app tier 1146 of FIG. 11 ), a data plane DMZ tier 1348 (e.g.the data plane DMZ tier 1148 of FIG. 11 ), and a data plane data tier1350 (e.g. the data plane data tier 1150 of FIG. 11 ). The data planeDMZ tier 1348 can include LB subnet(s) 1322 that can be communicativelycoupled to trusted app subnet(s) 1360 and untrusted app subnet(s) 1362of the data plane app tier 1346 and the Internet gateway 1334 containedin the data plane VCN 1318. The trusted app subnet(s) 1360 can becommunicatively coupled to the service gateway 1336 contained in thedata plane VCN 1318, the NAT gateway 1338 contained in the data planeVCN 1318, and DB subnet(s) 1330 contained in the data plane data tier1350. The untrusted app subnet(s) 1362 can be communicatively coupled tothe service gateway 1336 contained in the data plane VCN 1318 and DBsubnet(s) 1330 contained in the data plane data tier 1350. The dataplane data tier 1350 can include DB subnet(s) 1330 that can becommunicatively coupled to the service gateway 1336 contained in thedata plane VCN 1318.

The untrusted app subnet(s) 1362 can include one or more primary VNICs1364(1)-(N) that can be communicatively coupled to tenant virtualmachines (VMs) 1366(1)-(N). Each tenant VM 1366(1)-(N) can becommunicatively coupled to a respective app subnet 1367(1)-(N) that canbe contained in respective container egress VCNs 1368(1)-(N) that can becontained in respective customer tenancies 1370(1)-(N). Respectivesecondary VNICs 1372(1)-(N) can facilitate communication between theuntrusted app subnet(s) 1362 contained in the data plane VCN 1318 andthe app subnet contained in the container egress VCNs 1368(1)-(N). Eachcontainer egress VCNs 1368(1)-(N) can include a NAT gateway 1338 thatcan be communicatively coupled to public Internet 1354 (e.g. publicInternet 1154 of FIG. 11 ).

The Internet gateway 1334 contained in the control plane VCN 1316 andcontained in the data plane VCN 1318 can be communicatively coupled to ametadata management service 1352 (e.g. the metadata management system1152 of FIG. 11 ) that can be communicatively coupled to public Internet1354. Public Internet 1354 can be communicatively coupled to the NATgateway 1338 contained in the control plane VCN 1316 and contained inthe data plane VCN 1318. The service gateway 1336 contained in thecontrol plane VCN 1316 and contained in the data plane VCN 1318 can becommunicatively couple to cloud services 1356.

In some embodiments, the data plane VCN 1318 can be integrated withcustomer tenancies 1370. This integration can be useful or desirable forcustomers of the IaaS provider in some cases such as a case that maydesire support when executing code. The customer may provide code to runthat may be destructive, may communicate with other customer resources,or may otherwise cause undesirable effects. In response to this, theIaaS provider may determine whether to run code given to the IaaSprovider by the customer.

In some examples, the customer of the IaaS provider may grant temporarynetwork access to the IaaS provider and request a function to beattached to the data plane tier app 1346. Code to run the function maybe executed in the VMs 1366(1)-(N), and the code may not be configuredto run anywhere else on the data plane VCN 1318. Each VM 1366(1)-(N) maybe connected to one customer tenancy 1370. Respective containers1371(1)-(N) contained in the VMs 1366(1)-(N) may be configured to runthe code. In this case, there can be a dual isolation (e.g., thecontainers 1371(1)-(N) running code, where the containers 1371(1)-(N)may be contained in at least the VM 1366(1)-(N) that are contained inthe untrusted app subnet(s) 1362), which may help prevent incorrect orotherwise undesirable code from damaging the network of the IaaSprovider or from damaging a network of a different customer. Thecontainers 1371(1)-(N) may be communicatively coupled to the customertenancy 1370 and may be configured to transmit or receive data from thecustomer tenancy 1370. The containers 1371(1)-(N) may not be configuredto transmit or receive data from any other entity in the data plane VCN1318. Upon completion of running the code, the IaaS provider may kill orotherwise dispose of the containers 1371(1)-(N).

In some embodiments, the trusted app subnet(s) 1360 may run code thatmay be owned or operated by the IaaS provider. In this embodiment, thetrusted app subnet(s) 1360 may be communicatively coupled to the DBsubnet(s) 1330 and be configured to execute CRUD operations in the DBsubnet(s) 1330. The untrusted app subnet(s) 1362 may be communicativelycoupled to the DB subnet(s) 1330, but in this embodiment, the untrustedapp subnet(s) may be configured to execute read operations in the DBsubnet(s) 1330. The containers 1371(1)-(N) that can be contained in theVM 1366(1)-(N) of each customer and that may run code from the customermay not be communicatively coupled with the DB subnet(s) 1330.

In other embodiments, the control plane VCN 1316 and the data plane VCN1318 may not be directly communicatively coupled. In this embodiment,there may be no direct communication between the control plane VCN 1316and the data plane VCN 1318. However, communication can occur indirectlythrough at least one method. An LPG 1310 may be established by the IaaSprovider that can facilitate communication between the control plane VCN1316 and the data plane VCN 1318. In another example, the control planeVCN 1316 or the data plane VCN 1318 can make a call to cloud services1356 via the service gateway 1336. For example, a call to cloud services1356 from the control plane VCN 1316 can include a request for a servicethat can communicate with the data plane VCN 1318.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram 1400 illustrating another example pattern ofan IaaS architecture, according to at least one embodiment. Serviceoperators 1402 (e.g. service operators 1102 of FIG. 11 ) can becommunicatively coupled to a secure host tenancy 1404 (e.g. the securehost tenancy 1104 of FIG. 11 ) that can include a virtual cloud network(VCN) 1406 (e.g. the VCN 1106 of FIG. 11 ) and a secure host subnet 1408(e.g. the secure host subnet 1108 of FIG. 11 ). The VCN 1406 can includean LPG 1410 (e.g. the LPG 1110 of FIG. 11 ) that can be communicativelycoupled to an SSH VCN 1412 (e.g. the SSH VCN 1112 of FIG. 11 ) via anLPG 1410 contained in the SSH VCN 1412. The SSH VCN 1412 can include anSSH subnet 1414 (e.g. the SSH subnet 1114 of FIG. 11 ), and the SSH VCN1412 can be communicatively coupled to a control plane VCN 1416 (e.g.the control plane VCN 1116 of FIG. 11 ) via an LPG 1410 contained in thecontrol plane VCN 1416 and to a data plane VCN 1418 (e.g. the data plane1118 of FIG. 11 ) via an LPG 1410 contained in the data plane VCN 1418.The control plane VCN 1416 and the data plane VCN 1418 can be containedin a service tenancy 1419 (e.g. the service tenancy 1119 of FIG. 11 ).

The control plane VCN 1416 can include a control plane DMZ tier 1420(e.g. the control plane DMZ tier 1120 of FIG. 11 ) that can include LBsubnet(s) 1422 (e.g. LB subnet(s) 1122 of FIG. 11 ), a control plane apptier 1424 (e.g. the control plane app tier 1124 of FIG. 11 ) that caninclude app subnet(s) 1426 (e.g. app subnet(s) 1126 of FIG. 11 ), acontrol plane data tier 1428 (e.g. the control plane data tier 1128 ofFIG. 11 ) that can include DB subnet(s) 1430 (e.g. DB subnet(s) 1330 ofFIG. 13 ). The LB subnet(s) 1422 contained in the control plane DMZ tier1420 can be communicatively coupled to the app subnet(s) 1426 containedin the control plane app tier 1424 and to an Internet gateway 1434 (e.g.the Internet gateway 1134 of FIG. 11 ) that can be contained in thecontrol plane VCN 1416, and the app subnet(s) 1426 can becommunicatively coupled to the DB subnet(s) 1430 contained in thecontrol plane data tier 1428 and to a service gateway 1436 (e.g. theservice gateway of FIG. 11 ) and a network address translation (NAT)gateway 1438 (e.g. the NAT gateway 1138 of FIG. 11 ). The control planeVCN 1416 can include the service gateway 1436 and the NAT gateway 1438.

The data plane VCN 1418 can include a data plane app tier 1446 (e.g. thedata plane app tier 1146 of FIG. 11 ), a data plane DMZ tier 1448 (e.g.the data plane DMZ tier 1148 of FIG. 11 ), and a data plane data tier1450 (e.g. the data plane data tier 1150 of FIG. 11 ). The data planeDMZ tier 1448 can include LB subnet(s) 1422 that can be communicativelycoupled to trusted app subnet(s) 1460 (e.g. trusted app subnet(s) 1360of FIG. 13 ) and untrusted app subnet(s) 1462 (e.g. untrusted appsubnet(s) 1362 of FIG. 13 ) of the data plane app tier 1446 and theInternet gateway 1434 contained in the data plane VCN 1418. The trustedapp subnet(s) 1460 can be communicatively coupled to the service gateway1436 contained in the data plane VCN 1418, the NAT gateway 1438contained in the data plane VCN 1418, and DB subnet(s) 1430 contained inthe data plane data tier 1450. The untrusted app subnet(s) 1462 can becommunicatively coupled to the service gateway 1436 contained in thedata plane VCN 1418 and DB subnet(s) 1430 contained in the data planedata tier 1450. The data plane data tier 1450 can include DB subnet(s)1430 that can be communicatively coupled to the service gateway 1436contained in the data plane VCN 1418.

The untrusted app subnet(s) 1462 can include primary VNICs 1464(1)-(N)that can be communicatively coupled to tenant virtual machines (VMs)1466(1)-(N) residing within the untrusted app subnet(s) 1462. Eachtenant VM 1466(1)-(N) can run code in a respective container1467(1)-(N), and be communicatively coupled to an app subnet 1426 thatcan be contained in a data plane app tier 1446 that can be contained ina container egress VCN 1468. Respective secondary VNICs 1472(1)-(N) canfacilitate communication between the untrusted app subnet(s) 1462contained in the data plane VCN 1418 and the app subnet contained in thecontainer egress VCN 1468. The container egress VCN can include a NATgateway 1438 that can be communicatively coupled to public Internet 1454(e.g. public Internet 1154 of FIG. 11 ).

The Internet gateway 1434 contained in the control plane VCN 1416 andcontained in the data plane VCN 1418 can be communicatively coupled to ametadata management service 1452 (e.g. the metadata management system1152 of FIG. 11 ) that can be communicatively coupled to public Internet1454. Public Internet 1454 can be communicatively coupled to the NATgateway 1438 contained in the control plane VCN 1416 and contained inthe data plane VCN 1418. The service gateway 1436 contained in thecontrol plane VCN 1416 and contained in the data plane VCN 1418 can becommunicatively couple to cloud services 1456.

In some examples, the pattern illustrated by the architecture of blockdiagram 1400 of FIG. 14 may be considered an exception to the patternillustrated by the architecture of block diagram 1300 of FIG. 13 and maybe desirable for a customer of the IaaS provider if the IaaS providercannot directly communicate with the customer (e.g., a disconnectedregion). The respective containers 1467(1)-(N) that are contained in theVMs 1466(1)-(N) for each customer can be accessed in real-time by thecustomer. The containers 1467(1)-(N) may be configured to make calls torespective secondary VNICs 1472(1)-(N) contained in app subnet(s) 1426of the data plane app tier 1446 that can be contained in the containeregress VCN 1468. The secondary VNICs 1472(1)-(N) can transmit the callsto the NAT gateway 1438 that may transmit the calls to public Internet1454. In this example, the containers 1467(1)-(N) that can be accessedin real-time by the customer can be isolated from the control plane VCN1416 and can be isolated from other entities contained in the data planeVCN 1418. The containers 1467(1)-(N) may also be isolated from resourcesfrom other customers.

In other examples, the customer can use the containers 1467(1)-(N) tocall cloud services 1456. In this example, the customer may run code inthe containers 1467(1)-(N) that requests a service from cloud services1456. The containers 1467(1)-(N) can transmit this request to thesecondary VNICs 1472(1)-(N) that can transmit the request to the NATgateway that can transmit the request to public Internet 1454. PublicInternet 1454 can transmit the request to LB subnet(s) 1422 contained inthe control plane VCN 1416 via the Internet gateway 1434. In response todetermining the request is valid, the LB subnet(s) can transmit therequest to app subnet(s) 1426 that can transmit the request to cloudservices 1456 via the service gateway 1436.

It should be appreciated that IaaS architectures 1100, 1200, 1300, 1400depicted in the figures may have other components than those depicted.Further, the embodiments shown in the figures are only some examples ofa cloud infrastructure system that may incorporate an embodiment of thedisclosure. In some other embodiments, the IaaS systems may have more orfewer components than shown in the figures, may combine two or morecomponents, or may have a different configuration or arrangement ofcomponents.

In certain embodiments, the IaaS systems described herein may include asuite of applications, middleware, and database service offerings thatare delivered to a customer in a self-service, subscription-based,elastically scalable, reliable, highly available, and secure manner. Anexample of such an IaaS system is the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)provided by the present assignee.

FIG. 15 illustrates an example computer system 1500, in which variousembodiments may be implemented. The system 1500 may be used to implementany of the computer systems described above. As shown in the figure,computer system 1500 includes a processing unit 1504 that communicateswith a number of peripheral subsystems via a bus subsystem 1502. Theseperipheral subsystems may include a processing acceleration unit 1506,an I/O subsystem 1508, a storage subsystem 1518 and a communicationssubsystem 1524. Storage subsystem 1518 includes tangiblecomputer-readable storage media 1522 and a system memory 1510.

Bus subsystem 1502 provides a mechanism for letting the variouscomponents and subsystems of computer system 1500 communicate with eachother as intended. Although bus subsystem 1502 is shown schematically asa single bus, alternative embodiments of the bus subsystem may utilizemultiple buses. Bus subsystem 1502 may be any of several types of busstructures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheralbus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. Forexample, such architectures may include an Industry StandardArchitecture (ISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, EnhancedISA (EISA) bus, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) localbus, and Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, which can beimplemented as a Mezzanine bus manufactured to the IEEE P1386.1standard.

Processing unit 1504, which can be implemented as one or more integratedcircuits (e.g., a conventional microprocessor or microcontroller),controls the operation of computer system 1500. One or more processorsmay be included in processing unit 1504. These processors may includesingle core or multicore processors. In certain embodiments, processingunit 1504 may be implemented as one or more independent processing units1532 and/or 1534 with single or multicore processors included in eachprocessing unit. In other embodiments, processing unit 1504 may also beimplemented as a quad-core processing unit formed by integrating twodual-core processors into a single chip.

In various embodiments, processing unit 1504 can execute a variety ofprograms in response to program code and can maintain multipleconcurrently executing programs or processes. At any given time, some orall of the program code to be executed can be resident in processor(s)1504 and/or in storage subsystem 1518. Through suitable programming,processor(s) 1504 can provide various functionalities described above.Computer system 1500 may additionally include a processing accelerationunit 1506, which can include a digital signal processor (DSP), aspecial-purpose processor, and/or the like.

I/O subsystem 1508 may include user interface input devices and userinterface output devices. User interface input devices may include akeyboard, pointing devices such as a mouse or trackball, a touchpad ortouch screen incorporated into a display, a scroll wheel, a click wheel,a dial, a button, a switch, a keypad, audio input devices with voicecommand recognition systems, microphones, and other types of inputdevices. User interface input devices may include, for example, motionsensing and/or gesture recognition devices such as the Microsoft Kinect®motion sensor that enables users to control and interact with an inputdevice, such as the Microsoft Xbox® 360 game controller, through anatural user interface using gestures and spoken commands. Userinterface input devices may also include eye gesture recognition devicessuch as the Google Glass® blink detector that detects eye activity(e.g., ‘blinking’ while taking pictures and/or making a menu selection)from users and transforms the eye gestures as input into an input device(e.g., Google Glass®). Additionally, user interface input devices mayinclude voice recognition sensing devices that enable users to interactwith voice recognition systems (e.g., Siri® navigator), through voicecommands.

User interface input devices may also include, without limitation, threedimensional (3D) mice, joysticks or pointing sticks, gamepads andgraphic tablets, and audio/visual devices such as speakers, digitalcameras, digital camcorders, portable media players, webcams, imagescanners, fingerprint scanners, barcode reader 3D scanners, 3D printers,laser rangefinders, and eye gaze tracking devices. Additionally, userinterface input devices may include, for example, medical imaging inputdevices such as computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging,position emission tomography, medical ultrasonography devices. Userinterface input devices may also include, for example, audio inputdevices such as MIDI keyboards, digital musical instruments and thelike.

User interface output devices may include a display subsystem, indicatorlights, or non-visual displays such as audio output devices, etc. Thedisplay subsystem may be a cathode ray tube (CRT), a flat-panel device,such as that using a liquid crystal display (LCD) or plasma display, aprojection device, a touch screen, and the like. In general, use of theterm “output device” is intended to include all possible types ofdevices and mechanisms for outputting information from computer system1500 to a user or other computer. For example, user interface outputdevices may include, without limitation, a variety of display devicesthat visually convey text, graphics and audio/video information such asmonitors, printers, speakers, headphones, automotive navigation systems,plotters, voice output devices, and modems.

Computer system 1500 may comprise a storage subsystem 1518 thatcomprises software elements, shown as being currently located within asystem memory 1510. System memory 1510 may store program instructionsthat are loadable and executable on processing unit 1504, as well asdata generated during the execution of these programs.

Depending on the configuration and type of computer system 1500, systemmemory 1510 may be volatile (such as random access memory (RAM)) and/ornon-volatile (such as read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, etc.) TheRAM typically contains data and/or program modules that are immediatelyaccessible to and/or presently being operated and executed by processingunit 1504. In some implementations, system memory 1510 may includemultiple different types of memory, such as static random access memory(SRAM) or dynamic random access memory (DRAM). In some implementations,a basic input/output system (BIOS), containing the basic routines thathelp to transfer information between elements within computer system1500, such as during start-up, may typically be stored in the ROM. Byway of example, and not limitation, system memory 1510 also illustratesapplication programs 1512, which may include client applications, Webbrowsers, mid-tier applications, relational database management systems(RDBMS), etc., program data 1514, and an operating system 1516. By wayof example, operating system 1516 may include various versions ofMicrosoft Windows®, Apple Macintosh®, and/or Linux operating systems, avariety of commercially-available UNIX® or UNIX-like operating systems(including without limitation the variety of GNU/Linux operatingsystems, the Google Chrome® OS, and the like) and/or mobile operatingsystems such as iOS, Windows® Phone, Android® OS, BlackBerry® 15 OS, andPalm® OS operating systems.

Storage subsystem 1518 may also provide a tangible computer-readablestorage medium for storing the basic programming and data constructsthat provide the functionality of some embodiments. Software (programs,code modules, instructions) that when executed by a processor providethe functionality described above may be stored in storage subsystem1518. These software modules or instructions may be executed byprocessing unit 1504. Storage subsystem 1518 may also provide arepository for storing data used in accordance with the presentdisclosure.

Storage subsystem 1500 may also include a computer-readable storagemedia reader 1520 that can further be connected to computer-readablestorage media 1522. Together and, optionally, in combination with systemmemory 1510, computer-readable storage media 1522 may comprehensivelyrepresent remote, local, fixed, and/or removable storage devices plusstorage media for temporarily and/or more permanently containing,storing, transmitting, and retrieving computer-readable information.

Computer-readable storage media 1522 containing code, or portions ofcode, can also include any appropriate media known or used in the art,including storage media and communication media, such as but not limitedto, volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable mediaimplemented in any method or technology for storage and/or transmissionof information. This can include tangible computer-readable storagemedia such as RAM, ROM, electronically erasable programmable ROM(EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digitalversatile disk (DVD), or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes,magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices,or other tangible computer readable media. This can also includenontangible computer-readable media, such as data signals, datatransmissions, or any other medium which can be used to transmit thedesired information and which can be accessed by computing system 1500.

By way of example, computer-readable storage media 1522 may include ahard disk drive that reads from or writes to non-removable, nonvolatilemagnetic media, a magnetic disk drive that reads from or writes to aremovable, nonvolatile magnetic disk, and an optical disk drive thatreads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile optical disk such as aCD ROM, DVD, and Blu-Ray® disk, or other optical media.Computer-readable storage media 1522 may include, but is not limited to,Zip® drives, flash memory cards, universal serial bus (USB) flashdrives, secure digital (SD) cards, DVD disks, digital video tape, andthe like. Computer-readable storage media 1522 may also include,solid-state drives (SSD) based on non-volatile memory such asflash-memory based SSDs, enterprise flash drives, solid state ROM, andthe like, SSDs based on volatile memory such as solid state RAM, dynamicRAM, static RAM, DRAM-based SSDs, magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) SSDs, andhybrid SSDs that use a combination of DRAM and flash memory based SSDs.The disk drives and their associated computer-readable media may providenon-volatile storage of computer-readable instructions, data structures,program modules, and other data for computer system 1500.

Communications subsystem 1524 provides an interface to other computersystems and networks. Communications subsystem 1524 serves as aninterface for receiving data from and transmitting data to other systemsfrom computer system 1500. For example, communications subsystem 1524may enable computer system 1500 to connect to one or more devices viathe Internet. In some embodiments communications subsystem 1524 caninclude radio frequency (RF) transceiver components for accessingwireless voice and/or data networks (e.g., using cellular telephonetechnology, advanced data network technology, such as 3G, 4G or EDGE(enhanced data rates for global evolution), WiFi (IEEE 802.11 familystandards, or other mobile communication technologies, or anycombination thereof), global positioning system (GPS) receivercomponents, and/or other components. In some embodiments communicationssubsystem 1524 can provide wired network connectivity (e.g., Ethernet)in addition to or instead of a wireless interface.

In some embodiments, communications subsystem 1524 may also receiveinput communication in the form of structured and/or unstructured datafeeds 1526, event streams 1528, event updates 1530, and the like onbehalf of one or more users who may use computer system 1500.

By way of example, communications subsystem 1524 may be configured toreceive data feeds 1526 in real-time from users of social networksand/or other communication services such as Twitter® feeds, Facebook®updates, web feeds such as Rich Site Summary (RSS) feeds, and/orreal-time updates from one or more third party information sources.

Additionally, communications subsystem 1524 may also be configured toreceive data in the form of continuous data streams, which may includeevent streams 1528 of real-time events and/or event updates 1530, thatmay be continuous or unbounded in nature with no explicit end. Examplesof applications that generate continuous data may include, for example,sensor data applications, financial tickers, network performancemeasuring tools (e.g. network monitoring and traffic managementapplications), clickstream analysis tools, automobile trafficmonitoring, and the like.

Communications subsystem 1524 may also be configured to output thestructured and/or unstructured data feeds 1526, event streams 1528,event updates 1530, and the like to one or more databases that may be incommunication with one or more streaming data source computers coupledto computer system 1500.

Computer system 1500 can be one of various types, including a handheldportable device (e.g., an iPhone® cellular phone, an iPad® computingtablet, a PDA), a wearable device (e.g., a Google Glass® head mounteddisplay), a PC, a workstation, a mainframe, a kiosk, a server rack, orany other data processing system.

Due to the ever-changing nature of computers and networks, thedescription of computer system 1500 depicted in the figure is intendedonly as a specific example. Many other configurations having more orfewer components than the system depicted in the figure are possible.For example, customized hardware might also be used and/or particularelements might be implemented in hardware, firmware, software (includingapplets), or a combination. Further, connection to other computingdevices, such as network input/output devices, may be employed. Based onthe disclosure and teachings provided herein, a person of ordinary skillin the art will appreciate other ways and/or methods to implement thevarious embodiments.

Although specific embodiments have been described, variousmodifications, alterations, alternative constructions, and equivalentsare also encompassed within the scope of the disclosure. Embodiments arenot restricted to operation within certain specific data processingenvironments, but are free to operate within a plurality of dataprocessing environments. Additionally, although embodiments have beendescribed using a particular series of transactions and steps, it shouldbe apparent to those skilled in the art that the scope of the presentdisclosure is not limited to the described series of transactions andsteps. Various features and aspects of the above-described embodimentsmay be used individually or jointly.

Further, while embodiments have been described using a particularcombination of hardware and software, it should be recognized that othercombinations of hardware and software are also within the scope of thepresent disclosure. Embodiments may be implemented only in hardware, oronly in software, or using combinations thereof. The various processesdescribed herein can be implemented on the same processor or differentprocessors in any combination. Accordingly, where components or modulesare described as being configured to perform certain operations, suchconfiguration can be accomplished, e.g., by designing electroniccircuits to perform the operation, by programming programmableelectronic circuits (such as microprocessors) to perform the operation,or any combination thereof. Processes can communicate using a variety oftechniques including but not limited to conventional techniques forinter process communication, and different pairs of processes may usedifferent techniques, or the same pair of processes may use differenttechniques at different times.

The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense. It will, however, beevident that additions, subtractions, deletions, and other modificationsand changes may be made thereunto without departing from the broaderspirit and scope as set forth in the claims. Thus, although specificdisclosure embodiments have been described, these are not intended to belimiting. Various modifications and equivalents are within the scope ofthe following claims.

The use of the terms “a” and “an” and “the” and similar referents in thecontext of describing the disclosed embodiments (especially in thecontext of the following claims) are to be construed to cover both thesingular and the plural, unless otherwise indicated herein or clearlycontradicted by context. The terms “comprising,” “having,” “including,”and “containing” are to be construed as open-ended terms (i.e., meaning“including, but not limited to,”) unless otherwise noted. The term“connected” is to be construed as partly or wholly contained within,attached to, or joined together, even if there is something intervening.Recitation of ranges of values herein are merely intended to serve as ashorthand method of referring individually to each separate valuefalling within the range, unless otherwise indicated herein and eachseparate value is incorporated into the specification as if it wereindividually recited herein. All methods described herein can beperformed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein orotherwise clearly contradicted by context. The use of any and allexamples, or exemplary language (e.g., “such as”) provided herein, isintended merely to better illuminate embodiments and does not pose alimitation on the scope of the disclosure unless otherwise claimed. Nolanguage in the specification should be construed as indicating anynon-claimed element as essential to the practice of the disclosure.

Disjunctive language such as the phrase “at least one of X, Y, or Z,”unless specifically stated otherwise, is intended to be understoodwithin the context as used in general to present that an item, term,etc., may be either X, Y, or Z, or any combination thereof (e.g., X, Y,and/or Z). Thus, such disjunctive language is not generally intended to,and should not, imply that certain embodiments require at least one ofX, at least one of Y, or at least one of Z to each be present.

Preferred embodiments of this disclosure are described herein, includingthe best mode known for carrying out the disclosure. Variations of thosepreferred embodiments may become apparent to those of ordinary skill inthe art upon reading the foregoing description. Those of ordinary skillshould be able to employ such variations as appropriate and thedisclosure may be practiced otherwise than as specifically describedherein. Accordingly, this disclosure includes all modifications andequivalents of the subject matter recited in the claims appended heretoas permitted by applicable law. Moreover, any combination of theabove-described elements in all possible variations thereof isencompassed by the disclosure unless otherwise indicated herein.

All references, including publications, patent applications, andpatents, cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference to the sameextent as if each reference were individually and specifically indicatedto be incorporated by reference and were set forth in its entiretyherein.

In the foregoing specification, aspects of the disclosure are describedwith reference to specific embodiments thereof, but those skilled in theart will recognize that the disclosure is not limited thereto. Variousfeatures and aspects of the above-described disclosure may be usedindividually or jointly. Further, embodiments can be utilized in anynumber of environments and applications beyond those described hereinwithout departing from the broader spirit and scope of thespecification. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to beregarded as illustrative rather than restrictive.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: creating a network path bondbetween a plurality of compute instances and a plurality of NetworkVirtualization Devices (“NVD”), each of the plurality of NVDs comprisinga Virtualized Network Interface Card (“VNIC”) for each of the computeinstances, each of the VNICs having an overlay Internet Protocol (“IP”)address corresponding to an IP address of the compute instanceassociated with the VNIC, the network path bond comprising a pluralityof network paths, wherein each of the plurality of network pathsconnects the each of the compute instances to associated VNIC of one ofthe plurality of NVDs; identifying a monitoring bond coupling theplurality of NVDs to a monitoring agent; creating a number of monitoringVNICs, each of the number of monitoring VNICs residing in one of theplurality of NVDs, wherein the NVDs are coupled to the monitoring agentvia the monitoring VNICs; overlaying an IP address to each of themonitoring VNICs, wherein each of the monitoring VNICs share a common IPaddress; determining with the monitoring agent a health of at least oneof network paths via responsiveness of a virtual router on the NVD ofeach of the at least one network paths, the network paths comprising anactive network path and an inactive network path; and activating theinactive network path when the active network path fails.
 2. The methodof claim 1, further comprising identifying service tenancy.
 3. Themethod of claim 2, wherein the service tenancy comprises anadministrative virtual cloud network.
 4. The method of claim 2, whereinthe IP addresses are received from the service tenancy.
 5. The method ofclaim 2, wherein the IP addresses are determined by the monitoringagent.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying one ofthe network paths as an active network path.
 7. The method of claim 6,further comprising identifying at least one of the network paths as aninactive network path.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one ofthe plurality of compute instances comprises a virtual machine.
 9. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the plurality of compute instances on locatedon a single physical server.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein theplurality of compute instances share the active network path.
 11. Themethod of claim 10, wherein activating the inactive network path whenthe active network path fails comprises: identifying all of the VNICsassociated with the NVD of the failed network path; and updating routingtables to associate the overlaid IP addresses of the VNICs of the failednetwork path with VNICs of the activated inactive network path.
 12. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the active network path fails whenperformance of the active network path drops below a threshold level.13. The method of claim 12, wherein the threshold level identifies aminimum data transmission speed for the active network path.
 14. Themethod of claim 1, wherein at least some of the plurality of NVDscomprise a SmartNIC.
 15. The method of claim 1, wherein each of theVNICs comprises a Media Access Control (“MAC”) learning VNIC.
 16. Themethod of claim 1, wherein determining with the monitoring agent thehealth of at least one of network paths comprises: sending acommunication to the active network path via the monitoring bond;providing information from the monitoring bond to the monitoring agentbased on any response received to the communication; and determining thehealth of the at least one of the network paths with the monitoringagent based on the information provided by the monitoring bond.
 17. Anon-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a plurality ofinstructions executable by one or more processors, the plurality ofinstructions when executed by the one or more processors cause the oneor more processors to: create a network path bond between a plurality ofcompute instances and a plurality of Network Virtualization Devices(“NVD”), each of the plurality of NVDs comprising a Virtualized NetworkInterface Card (“VNIC”) for each of the compute instances, each of theVNICs having an overlay Internet Protocol (“IP”) address correspondingto an IP address of the compute instance associated with the VNIC, thenetwork path bond comprising a plurality of network paths, wherein eachof the plurality of network paths connects the each of the computeinstances to associated VNIC of one of the plurality of NVDs; identify amonitoring bond coupling the plurality of NVDs to a monitoring agent;create a number of monitoring VNICs, each of the number of monitoringVNICs residing in one of the plurality of NVDs, wherein the NVDs arecoupled to the monitoring agent via the monitoring VNICs; overlay an IPaddress to each of the monitoring VNICs, wherein each of the monitoringVNICs share a common IP address; determine with the monitoring agent ahealth of at least one of network paths via responsiveness of a virtualrouter on the NVD of each of the at least one network paths, the networkpaths comprising an active network path and an inactive network path;and activate the inactive network path when the active network pathfails.
 18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim17, wherein the plurality of compute instances share the active networkpath, and wherein activating the inactive network path when the activenetwork path fails comprises: identifying all of the VNICs associatedwith the NVD of the failed network path; and updating routing tables toassociate the overlaid IP addresses of the VNICs of the failed networkpath with VNICs of the activated inactive network path.
 19. A systemcomprising: a plurality of Network Virtualization Devices (“NVD”); and aprocessor configured to: create a network path bond between a pluralityof compute instances and a plurality of Network Virtualization Devices(“NVD”), each of the plurality of NVDs comprising a Virtualized NetworkInterface Card (“VNIC”) for each of the compute instances, each of theVNICs having an overlay Internet Protocol (“IP”) address correspondingto an IP address of the compute instance associated with the VNIC, thenetwork path bond comprising a plurality of network paths, wherein eachof the plurality of network paths connects the each of the computeinstances to associated VNIC of one of the plurality of NVDs; identify amonitoring bond coupling the plurality of NVDs to a monitoring agent;create a number of monitoring VNICs, each of the number of monitoringVNICs residing in one of the plurality of NVDs, wherein the NVDs arecoupled to the monitoring agent via the monitoring VNICs; overlay an IPaddress to each of the monitoring VNICs, wherein each of the monitoringVNICs share a common Internet Protocol (“IP”) address; determine withthe monitoring agent a health of at least one of network paths viaresponsiveness of a virtual router on the NVD of each of the at leastone network paths, the network paths comprising an active network pathand an inactive network path; and activate the inactive network pathwhen the active network path fails.
 20. The system of claim 19, whereinthe plurality of compute instances share the active network path, andwherein activating the inactive network path when the active networkpath fails comprises: identifying all of the VNICs associated with theNVD of the failed network path; and updating routing tables to associatethe overlaid IP addresses of the VNICs of the failed network path withVNICs of the activated inactive network path.